Teachers’ rep slams govt response on leave fares

National

By PISAI GUMAR
THE Mamose Teachers Association says the government’s explanation on the unpaid teachers’ leave fares is unacceptable.
Regional secretary Michael Aimos said the explanation by the Education Department was to cover up its weakness and the provincial division’s failure to ensure teachers were paid their leave fares.
“This issue has become a chronic disease within the education systems over time and many teachers are still owed leave fares for 2015 and 2016,” Aimos said.
He said a parliamentary committee led by former Wabag MP Robert Ganim last year had made recommendations on teachers’ leave fare issues “but nothing was done to correct the flaws”.
He urged Education Minister Nick Kuman to act on the recommendations of the Ganim committee.
Aimos said teachers submitted their leave fare applications before the set deadlines.
He said teachers and their families wanted to reunite with loved ones during the festive period.
Aimos said the leave fare deductions from teachers’ salaries were “a daylight robbery of teachers’ sweat over their right to work entitlements”.