THE Ministry of Finance and Planning is to meet with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) this week, in a last ditch effort to settle their wage dispute ahead of the start of the new school year.

Sources told the Sunday Observer that the meeting had been tentatively set for Wednesday, with Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Fitz Jackson, who will lead the government’s team.

Meanwhile, outgoing JTA president, Ruel Reid is urging government to settle with the teachers before the organisation’s annual conference to be held in Ocho Rios the following week.

“The government has said they want to have an urgent meeting ahead of our conference, which begins on the 21st so that we can be in a position where the delegates could accept their counter-offer,” Reid said last week.

He is predicting disruption if the parties cannot reach a consensus.

“We don’t only talk, we want action, because I am convinced that if the conference does not receive a positive response, then the start of the school year is going to be disrupted,” he said.

The teachers’ union last month rejected the government’s latest salary offer for the period 2006 to 2008. The offer was one that Reid described as an insult.

“On average, what is offered is a measly $1,200 to $1,500 increase per week. After two years that cannot adequately compensate for the loss in their standard of living,” the JTA president said then.

The JTA’s annual conference is slated for the Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, where Reid is to hand over the presidency to his successor Hopeton Henry, principal of Seaforth High School in St Thomas.

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