Teachers await salary deal signing

By JINA AMBA
A TEACHERS salary fixation agreement signed in 2016 for 2017-2019 has already expired and a new one needs to be signed, an official says.
Papua New Guinea Teacher’s Association (PNGTA) national general-secretary David Numbaming said teachers needed to know when the agreement would be re-signed.
He said a new agreement could not be negotiated as the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) did not want to work with the current PNGTA executives.
Numbaming said as a result teachers were affected.
He said the PNGTA was the mouth piece of the teachers and the TSC their employer and for both bodies not to work together was a problem.
Numbaming said teachers had been without a re-signed agreement for three years and he urged the TSC to clarify why this had not happened and when they would rectify it. Meanwhile, TSC chairman Samson Wangihomie in response, said agreements across the entire public sector had not been re-signed.
He said several issues had caused these agreements not to be signed with the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country being the main one.
“If any Government department is pay appraising, it’s to do with outstanding entitlements that were not paid,” he said.
“No new agreements could have been reached yet with anybody so as we are talking, they are still being paid their increments that went up to 2019.”
The chairman said he was aware that the PNGTA wanted to sit down and come up with a new agreement but this was not possible at the moment.
“We are not saying no,” he said.
“We know the cost of living has risen simply because of the Covid-19 but what can we do? Everyone is feeling it.”