Teacher: TSC lets us down

National, Normal
Source:

The National,Friday 13 January 2012

By SALLY POKITON
UPNG journalism student
A TEACHER claims they are being cheated by the Teaching Service Commission by not being paid their service allowance for last year.
Tiomdi Marcellus, a teacher at Kemabolo Primary School in Rigo district, Central, said teachers from the province had been cheated last year by the commission which had not honoured a three-year agreement signed in 2010.
He said all teachers working in Central were supposed to be paid a teaching service allowance of K75, an accommodation allowance of K19.23 and an additional 6% consumer price index (CPI) of their net salary.
He said the three-year teaching service allowance effective from Jan 1, 2011, would see the commission pay them K75 in the first year (2011), K100 this year and K125 next year.
“To date, that K75 has not been paid and I just found out from the PNG Teachers Association that other teachers in Central were not paid as well,” Marcellus said.
But Teaching Service Commission executive officer Neilo Dobunaba, who was responding to the query yesterday, said although not shown on the teachers’ pay slip, the allowance had already been inbuilt into the pay system.
“They have been receiving that allowance fortnightly effectively as of 1/01/11 but it was not shown on the pay slip,” Dobunaba said.