PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association La Sonja Harrison is questioning the persistence of monthly delays in some teachers being paid even as she said the association would continue to monitor the situation, a day after it warned that it could not guarantee normality in the education sector.

The JTA, in a press release on Tuesday, had said it noted the continued frustration being experienced by teachers over delays in their salaries.

When asked if the association was aware of any protest action by its members who had not been paid on time, Harrison said the JTA would continue to monitor the situation.

“I haven’t gotten [any report] but I am sure individual teachers would have reviewed their personal situation. The truth is, if you do not have any money to go to work, you do not have any money to go… But in terms of a national action, I have received no reports of teachers registering their displeasure to this continuous disregard and disrespect — and I would say inhumane treatment — because if it is you work, you expect to get pay and there is an agreed time for you to get paid,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

Early Wednesday, Minister of Education Fayval Williams took issue with the press release issued by the JTA. She said changes will be made to the processing of payrolls at the ministry.

Williams, during an interview on Nationwide News, said she was “very surprised” at a press release issued by the JTA on Tuesday night warning that there could be disruptions to the education sector.

“If you look back, last month we made a public communication and we also were in communication with the JTA. Having uploaded salaries on Monday for the teachers who are paid by the ministry, and having seen, too, subventions going out to schools you know there wasn’t a need to put out any release about salaries because of the [timing] of what was being done,” she said.

Harrison said there are also other concerns facing teachers, including the recently concluded compensation review.

“… Because what they are seeing on their pay stub cannot be their correct pay. Coming out of the compensation review there are still several anomalies, discrepancies, issues that are surfacing where [for] the calculation teachers are saying what they are seeing on their salary can’t be accurate, and the promise of special responsibility money that was supposed to be paid from March, but was deferred until April 2023, teachers are not able to say if what they are seeing there is the full sum and if it is if they have received the retroactive sums for same. So, there are several issues that need to be treated with and ironed out because the teachers of this nation cannot be shafted their money — however small or great it is,” she said.

“The remote inducement allowance, there is an anomaly there as it relates to the MOU [because] as of January 2023 it was said that maternity would be extending by a month — so three months with full pay — [yet] there are teachers who have applied to same at the ministry and they are being told they can’t access the facility,” added Harrison.

She said the outstanding issues are frustrating to teachers.

“The teachers provide a service, they give of their labour, and they are expecting their wages at an agreed time which is usually the 25th of a month. Who cares? Is this the best treatment of the State towards its workers? And why does this treatment seem to persist for us educators? Why does the teachers’ financial state continue to experience such trepidation?” asked Harrison.

“The Government of Jamaica must treat its teachers in a more humane manner,” she added.