Sixty Northern teachers query leave entitlements

 By MIRIAM MALAWA

SIXTY teachers from Northern have not been paid their leave fares for last year, Papua New Guinea Teachers’ Association vice-president for Northern Isaac Anego says. 

Anego said 160 teachers had sent their claims to the Treasury Office and 100 were approved for payments, while the other 60 had their claims returned to the education division and told that there was no money to pay their leave entitlements. Anego said from the 100 teachers, 70 received their fares before Christmas  and 30 would receive them this week.

He said this was not fair as teachers spent their holiday period in front of the education division just to wait for their  entitlements. 

He said the assumed amount from the government was K1,478,000 of which K1,222,000 was allocated to the Northern education division.

He said from the allocated funds K628,478.13 was paid out for teachers’ leave entitlements and the pro­vincial division helped with K365,000. 

“What happened to the rest of the money,” Anego asked.

He said the provincial education division and the administration were aware of the situation but had kept them in suspense until Tuesday when teachers were told that there was no money to pay for their leave fares and they should not front up at the office. He said the 60 were told that theirs would be settled in March, which was when the division received its first quarter. 

“The 60 teachers have been declared by the PNGTA as outstanding payments as we are already in 2014 and if they are being paid for in March, what money would it be taken from, would it be the 2014 leave fare money?”

Anego said Northern was known for its outstanding teachers’ entitlements and this had to stop.  He appealed to the provincial members to help and offset these teachers before they returned to class as they had two weeks left.

He called on the Teaching Service Commission as the employers of teachers  to fix this yearly problem and suggested that teachers’ leave fares for the province should be paid straight to the division trust account so that it would not be used for other purposes.