EDUCATION Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson has noted the government’s commitment to completing salary negotiations with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), to safeguard a smooth start to the new academic year next month.

“I am confident that starting as we leave here, we will be making every effort to ensure that we have settlement before this ultimatum (expires). We want the schools to open,” the minister told the 42nd annual conference of the JTA, at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios on Wednesday.

The association on Tuesday gave the government until August 30 to present a more favourable offer to the island’s more than 20,000 public school teachers. The decision came in the wake of a unanimous vote by conference delegates to reject government’s latest offer on wage and fringe benefits.

Henry-Wilson, meanwhile, has expressed deep regret that a settlement had not been reached on the matter but said that the government was ready to resume negotiations as quickly as possible in order to have it settled.

“Yesterday afternoon after the decision was taken, I spoke with both the Minister of Finance (Omar Davies) and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance (Fitz Jackson). Both are equally anxious to have a settlement. Both asked me to convey to you that they are ready to go back to the bargaining table as soon as possible,” she told the conference.

Henry-Wilson, however, appealed to the teachers to recognise the circumstances under which negotiations take place and also to recognise that all the variables were not controlled by those doing the negotiations, even from the government side.

“I ask you to recognise that we are not being confronted with a clean slate and hence we have to bear that in mind as we continue to arrive at a solution,” the minister said.

JTA president Hopeton Henry said, in the interim, that the JTA wished to ensure the opening of school in September but said all decisions taken at the conference on Tuesday would stand.

“All decisions taken yesterday will stand. We are standing firmly. The lines will be held,” he said, adding to reporters later his hope for a quick settlement.

“Basically as it relates to the industrial issue, it is our hope and our resolve that this will be settled on time. We’re not retreating from the line that we have drawn. If we were to do that we would have possibly complacency or a retreat by the ministry of finance,” he said.

“We want a resolution and we’re going to pull out all the stops to have a resolution. In the absence of a resolution we would be forced to take the necessary actions,” he added.

The nature of those “necessary actions” remain a mystery.

“I cannot determine that until the Action Committee meets on Saturday. I have in my mind my own views but not until the Action Committee takes the requisite solution if we do not have a solution,” the JTA president said.

– gilchristc@jamaicaobserver.com