Shepherd says union to reassess how it will engage with Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education’s “disregard” for the concerns of the country’s teachers’ unions could spell trouble for future negotiations, Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) president Pedro Shepherd has warned.

The longstanding union leader disclosed that members had already started questioning the state of industrial relations amid negotiations on the restart of school that he believes could see significant changes to the terms and conditions under which educators are currently contracted.

Shepherd gave those views after two days of talks between the Ministry of Education and primary and secondary teachers failed to attract support from the country’s two largest teachers’ unions.

“A lot is going to come out of this week’s meetings, I am sure, and the union executive will probably have to meet sometime next week to look at where it is and where it has to go,” Shepherd told Barbados TODAY.

“We will have to look at [the situation] and determine whether it is best to continue with the consultations with the Ministry, because we see a Ministry that is bent on doing what it wants to do regardless of what the stakeholders say and how the stakeholders feel, and if that is the thinking of the Ministry going forward, certainly the BUT would have to rethink how we have to treat to the ministry as stakeholders,” he added.

The unions have been complaining about a unilateral deviation in the agreed terms of meetings between teachers and ministry officials, along with the Ministry’s refusal to provide online facilities that allow everyone to participate amid the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

But Minister Santia Bradshaw has maintained she is under no obligation to seek the unions’ “rubber stamp” on such matters.

Despite calls for a boycott of the talks, at least 25 per cent of the country’s teachers showed up at both meetings at the Wildey Gymnasium. According to Bradshaw, that was evidence of teachers’ “frustration” and “disengagement” with the positions of their representatives.

“I just think it is how they see us and how they treat to us,” Shepherd told Barbados TODAY.

“They bring us to consultations to have discussions, but they have no regard for our opinions and our ideas, and I am saying that the union would have to think seriously going forward as to whether it has that sort of time to give to these consultations when at the end of the day, really and truly, the decisions were made long before the consultation,” Shepherd said.

He then warned: “What transpired this week is going to come back to haunt teachers and their unions. I heard people speaking already about the timetabling and so on, but I said months ago that the online exercise is going to change the terms and conditions of teachers’ [contracts] and I am sure we are going to see some changes to the terms and conditions as a result of this approach that we are taking now.”

Shepherd said BUT members who work at preschools and special needs institutions were still asking whether they should attend consultations later this week. Like primary and secondary teachers, they are being urged not to attend.

“For me, it was a personal invitation and if teachers want to go and have a personal conversation with their Minister that is fine, but we advised the BUT teachers not to go because we know of the repercussions that are likely to come out of all of this and we will maintain that position throughout the week. Regardless of what comments we are hearing, we will hold that position,” the union president vowed.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)