And another issue that came up in the conference was the fact that, after almost 15 years, the BNTU still has not signed their Collective Bargaining Agreement. And because of that, the secondary school teachers aren't getting the money they deserve when they leave the career.
According to the BNTU president, it's severely affecting the teachers, and while the churches that manage the schools say they just can't pay, the union members aren't inclined to just take their word for it.
Elena Smith, President, B.N.T.U.
"I want for you to think for a moment. Imagine you are working and at the end of your working career your boss says to you, you know what I can only give you seventy percent of what you should be getting. The other thirty percent you fight me for that, you take me to court and by the time you would have gone through the court you would have spent ten, fifteen of that on attorneys. How fair is that to a person who have given years of service to his/her employer for you to have to walk away with only 70%."
"And here we have our government, it doesn't matter if its red or blue, that it has taken them 14 years to finalize this matter. How long must our teachers continue to suffer before our government can see and can understand the impact of what it is that this is having on our teachers."
"So beside looking at the fact of the seventy-thirty, Minister Henry Usher said to us that the churches simply cannot afford to pay these teachers. They don't have the money. Now, you own a school, you have employees and you know what are your responsibilities and you don't prepare for thirty five years down the road when a a teacher is going to retire and then the government will say to us they don't have money. They can't afford it. All of us give collection and those teachers have to fundraise at their schools to be able to assist those schools. So, what are we doing with those moneys? Have those schools been audited? How do we know that they don't have the funds? Did you go and audit them? We will fight to the bitter end to ensure that our teachers get what they rightfully deserve."
