KINGSTON, Jamaica — Members of the General Council of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) today voted to reject the latest salary offer from the government.

JTA said the decision was made at a special General Council Meeting through which they have mandated the leadership of the association to communicate their rejection to the government as well as to seek to get a better offer.

When contacted, JTA president Georgia Waugh-Richards said the government had revised its previous 16 per cent offer but she is unable to provide the details at this time.

The meeting was necessitated by the March 14, 2018 Heads of Agreement reached at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, between the JTA and the ministries of finance and the public service and education, youth and information.

The ministry called an emergency conciliation meeting last Wednesday in response to reports of island wide industrial action taken by government-paid teachers.

A significant number of the island’s 23,000 public school teachers on last Monday embarked on what sources say was a three-day sick-out or sit-in protest against the Government’s wage offer of a 16 per cent increase over a four-year period.

Today’s meeting was held in the WBC (Ben) Hawthorne Conference Room, at the JTA Head offices, 97B Church Street, Kingston.