THE teachers’ union yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), agreeing to a three per cent cap on wage hikes over the next two years, but warned that it expected the Government to honour its commitment to reclaim single digit inflation and hold prices at manageable levels.

The Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA), which represents approximately 20,000 teachers, did not initially join the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Union (JCTU) in signing the MOU with the Government, on the grounds that it required more time to discuss the issue among its members.

And in signing the agreement yesterday, JTA President Wentworth Gabbidon, noted that the “teachers were making the sacrifice to forego wage increases in the interest of the nation, but we have concerns about the increases in prices and utility rates”.

But Finance Minister Dr Omar Davies, who was also present at the signing, said the Government intended to honour its part of the agreement.

“In two weeks time I will present a budget that is consistent with the spirit of that agreement (the MOU),” Davies said.

Gabbidon also appealed to private sector interests to recognise the sacrifices of the teachers and lessen the rate of price increases.

In response, the finance minister said the Monitoring Committee, which was established to monitor the MOU including issues like price increases, would be taken seriously and strengthened in the interest of protecting the workers and the wider society.

With the JTA signing, all the unions representing public sector workers now agree to the terms of the MOU. In exchange, the government has agreed to stay its hand on slashing up to 15,000 government jobs as part of an effort to rein in the public sector deficit, which closed the year at around seven per cent, above the projected three to four per cent forecast by Davies.

Yesterday, the finance minister commended the JTA for signing the agreement along with the bulk of the other public sector groups, noting that it “represented a restructuring of the social order, not just every man for himself” that sets the tone for responsible collective bargaining in the future that was sensitive to the national interest.

He also noted that the agreement was helpful in reducing the current budget by an estimated $3 to $4 billion.

Gabbidon, for his part, used the occasion of the signing to appeal to Davies to show special “consideration” for the plight of the specialist teachers, who were overpaid and ordered to repay the amounts.

“They really believed they were getting their rightful salary,” Gabbidon said.

The JCTU vice-president, Dwight Nelson, who led the MOU negotiations on behalf of the public sector unions, said the agreement was not taken in isolation, but “was arrived at through dialogue with the government aiming at a consensus in addressing a major problem that the country faced”.

Nelson noted that he was particularly pleased that the JTA had come on board as there were details in the MOU that spoke to improvements in the education sector, including “the imparting of management skills and training of administrators and others involved in running the schools”.