Teachers’ wages agreement not fulfilled

THE Government did not honour its agreement with the Papua New Guinea Teachers Association (PNGTA) due to cash-flow problems, the education minister says
Nick Kuman told parliament yesterday that the Government was not able to honour its three-year wage fixation agreement with the PNGTA for 2017-19 due to money problems.
“In the later part of 2017, we came to a decision that the Government will honour their obligation in 2018,” he said.
“The government has taken action in last couple of weeks just to make sure that we fix that problem and we are going to stack those payments in 2018 over time.”
Kuman said the payments would not be made in bulk sums but paid over time until the end of this year.
He said that for next year, it would depend on the cash flow situation.
“If the cash flow improves, then you will see some improvement in how we pay.
“The Department of Personnel Management has taken responsibility with the Unions of Teachers Associations and all our unions in the public sector to make sure that we honour that commitment in 2018,” Kuman said.