After four days of protests last week, the islands teachers on Sunday voted to accept the Government’s wage offer, OBSERVER ONLINE has learnt.

This will ensure normality returns to the classroom on Monday.

Reports reaching Observer Online are that 803 delegates of the 25-thousand strong Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) voted, with 629 voting to accept the offer and 147 voting to reject it. There was one abstention.

Last week, teachers staged four days of protests in the form of sickouts, sit-ins and go slow to press their demand for what they said was a livable wage.

Students were turned back when they turned up at school.

The militant teachers only returned to the classroom for regular duties on Friday after they were warned by the Ministry of Education that their pay could be docked.

Teachers represented the largest group of some 40,000 public sector employees who had refused to sign the new wage offer under the Government’s public sector compensation review programme.

With the membership of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association also voting to accept the offer on Sunday, the police are now the largest group of roughly 113,000 public servants yet to sign.

Finance and Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke has repeatedly warned that back salaries not paid during the current financial year that ends on March 31 will not be accommodated in the upcoming budget and will not be paid for several budget cycles.

That position has been dismissed by the parliamentary Opposition as nothing more than an attempt to intimidate and bully workers into signing as it said provisions can be made to ensure the payments are made as soon as negotiations are concluded.