Earlier on we introduced out interview with Minister of Education Francis Fonseca. He discussed the return of school on Friday - but implicit in that conversation is restoring that 10% cut in the wages for teachers and public officers.
So, we asked about the timeline for the full restoration of the pay for teachers and public officers:
Hon. Francis Fonseca - Member, GOB's Negotiating Team
"Again, we have had very positive, good-faith discussions with the joint unions from the very beginning. I've always said, I've always made it a point to put on record our gratitude to the joint unions for the mature manner in which they have engaged in those discussions with us. It's a very - there were painful decisions, you know, and so since that announcement, I can tell you that they obviously welcome that decision. They are happy to have the 10% returned. Obviously, they never wanted it to happen. And so, they welcome that. But obviously, they want us to continue working together on other serious challenges. That is facing the country. So we are going to work is not done. Our discussions and consultations with the joint unions will continue. We have a lot of work to do on constitutional reform, and governance reform. We have other issues that we have to discuss, the collective bargaining agreement that exists that there are still some points on hold in respect to that. So there are lots of things that we are committed to working on together, but obviously, they are very happy about the fact that we have been able to return the 10% two years early, because as you know, in the consultations, we told them it would be for three years. It was only for one year. And we were glad about that."
