BUT warns Alma Parris teacher contracts could set precedent

A dispute is apparently brewing at the recently revived Alma Parris Academy, with the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) opposing an alleged attempt to engage teachers as independent contractors and warning that the arrangement could set a precedent across the public education system.

Three teachers are currently at the centre of the dispute, but BUT General Secretary Gilbert Carmichael fears the implications could extend beyond Alma Parris if the arrangement is allowed to take root.

The controversy comes less than two years after the government reopened the St Peter school following a seven-year closure and a $1.2 million first phase of renovations, with teachers specially selected for the revamped institution.

Carmichael told Barbados TODAY the union was also seeking clarity on information it received that there are no established teaching posts at the school.

“The numbers will grow because of the issue or the concern that was raised where we are being told that there are no posts available at the school, which is something now that we’re working to clarify…. We are seeking to figure out if that is indeed the case,” he said.

When Alma Parris reopened in January 2025 as a redesigned academy catering to students requiring additional learning support, then Minister of Education Kay McConney said the students, teachers and Board of Management had already been identified. The academy opened with 24 students and a specially selected teaching staff.

The BUT now contends that efforts are being made to engage teachers under an employment arrangement that has not previously formed part of the public education system.

Carmichael argued that the nature of teachers’ work was at odds with their classification as independent contractors.

“If you look at what is an independent contractor… the person sets their own hours. The person sets or tells the client what they are to be paid. They provide their own resources, et cetera,” he said.

“… Teaching doesn’t work like that because, as a teacher, the Education Act tells you that you follow the directives of the principal and there are set duties that you have, so you’re really not in control of your scope of work if you’re being called an independent contractor.”

He also raised concerns about the implications for teachers’ benefits and protections, saying independent contractors were responsible for their own statutory obligations and would not enjoy certain rights and privileges associated with the wider public service.

But Carmichael said the union’s concern transcends the three teachers immediately affected.

“We would not want to allow this to happen and then set a bad precedent and then, down the road, people say that this existed back then and then teachers’ security of tenure and terms and conditions of work are affected,” he said.

In a statement issued Thursday, the BUT said it had exhausted avenues to resolve the matter with the school’s Board of Management and the Ministry of Education Transformation.

According to the union, information it received indicated that when Alma Parris reopened, posts had been recommended for the principal, deputy principal, guidance counsellor and social worker. Teachers were reportedly to be redeployed from elsewhere in the secondary school system, taking their substantive posts with them. 

The BUT said there has been no indication that part-time teachers would be required to meet the school’s staffing needs. 

Carmichael said the union had written to and engaged the relevant parties and sought the involvement of the trade union representative on the school’s board.

“We thought it was working, but it turned out that all they did was to change terminologies but the substance of the contract remained the same,” he said.

The union said the board subsequently advertised positions at the academy while discussions over the contracts remained unresolved.

Carmichael said the union wanted teachers employed under the established framework.

“BUT would want that teachers are afforded the respect that they deserve and that the laws of the country would be followed in the sense that there is temporary teacher, there is full-time teacher,” he said.

“So an independent contractor is new. And we are questioning where it has come from because it’s not part of the educational landscape as it relates to the hiring of teachers.”

The BUT said it intends to protect its members and their rights “at all costs”.

Barbados TODAY has contacted the Ministry of Education Transformation for a response.