‘Serious pending issues’ highlighted

THERE are some serious pending issues raised to the union that needed to be addressed, says Fiji Teachers Union general secretary Agni Deo Singh.

Mr Singh said they would work with the Ministry of Education in solving these pending issues.

“We have some serious pending matters that we’ll now have to straight away begin addressing with the ministry,” he said.

Mr Singh said there was a need to relook at the disciplinary guideline.

“We have a disciplinary guideline that needs to be relooked at because at present the disciplinary guideline gives the permanent secretary the blank cheque whereby he/ she can receive an investigation report from her colleagues, her staff and terminate a teacher without referring the teacher to the third party.

“We also have to address all the anomalies in the job evaluation exercise that was carried out in 2017.”

Mr Singh claimed some members of the union had not received their annual increment for the past three years.

“Our members are owed their annual increment for the last three years. They haven’t been paid and we have already made submissions in the past and we want to continue pursuing for the payment of their annual increment.

“A large number of those acting in the higher positions haven’t been paid their acting allowance from last year. That is also a serious issue for us and the ministry must pay them because they have done their job.

“In the past it never happened. As soon as people have completed 30 days of acting as per the general orders, their acting allowance would kick in, but right no those who have been acting since last year in established positions and yet their allowances haven’t been paid.”

Mr Singh said they would also review other policies which had been imposed a few years ago.