Wage talks between the Government and the teachers’ union collapsed on Friday, resulting in an ultimatum for the finance ministry to come up with a better offer by midnight Sunday or face an industrial response.

“Nothing was placed on the table, nothing at all was placed on the table,” Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President-elect Mark Malabver told the
Jamaica Observer shortly after the union issued a news release on the development.

The JTA said that after being invited to a meeting at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service on Friday, no new offer was placed on the table, despite the urging of the JTA team.

Malabver said there was no improvement on the offer of 7.5 per cent over four years.

“We rejected that offer. Coming into this meeting, we had expected an offer to have been placed on the table, an improved offer. We were promised that an improved offer would have been placed on the table and that was not forthcoming,” he told the Observer.

However, in a later news release, Finance Minister Fayval Williams said that of the many items of claims submitted by the JTA, “there has been settlement of payment of advancement along salary bands and meaningful progress in the discussions around various other items including the treatment of extra hours worked, matters of uniform, continuing the broadband programme service as the Government seeks to improve the delivery of education and revision and passage of the Pension Legislation to treat with premature retirement”.

Williams also said that “there are many items of an administrative nature included in the items of claims that are being addressed by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information”.

She said that while it is disappointing that the members of the JTA’s leadership chose not to continue the discussions at Friday’s meeting that they demanded, the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service “remains committed to the matter of wage and fringe benefits negotiations”.

Added Williams: “I remain willing to continue the discussions in good faith, with the aim of arriving at an outcome that is sustainable, equitable and in the best interest of the nation.”

The JTA, in its release, said that in light of the development, it has “given the Ministry of Finance until midnight Sunday, August 17, 2025 to come up with a better offer, failing which the association reserves the right to activate all its machinery to respond”.

Asked what form of action could the country expect if there is no resolution of the matter, Malabver, who is scheduled to take office at the end of this month, said, “Well, from where we sit, we are going to put the matter squarely to our delegates, and we will subject ourselves to the dictates of the delegates. What I am prepared to say at this point in time is that we cannot guarantee normalcy going forward.”

The JTA’s Annual Conference is scheduled for August 18-20, 2025 at Princess Grand Hotel in Hanover.

WILLIAMS… I remain willing to continue the discussions in good faith