Teachers were paid in full for not working, yet still demand increase

I WISH to comment on Jean Michel Bouvier’s letter (“Open your eyes”, Cape Argus, November 2).

I find it baffling, to say the least, that teachers can have this characteristic called entitlement. Teachers were on a two-month holiday from March 13. Then they went to school for a shortened second term, etc.

So, due to Covid 19 this was a short teaching year (in terms of days and hours spent at school). There were other employees in the private sector who wanted to work but could not. Some of them were retrenched or put on “short time” because of institutions running into financial difficulties.

Teachers were paid their full salaries, at the taxpayers’ expense, which to me was not fair. Unemployment is sky-high, yet they do not care about the economic situation of the country, in that they want to bleed this country dry with their irrational demands.

Do you know what the debt to GDP ratio is? Do you know what the unemployment rate is? Poverty is spiralling out of control, and those very poor (and unemployed) people must, just like you, pay 15% VAT on most items. Do you have no shame whatsoever?

Think, think, are you serious in that you should be afforded preferential treatment? For what reason?

I’m shocked you have the audacity to demand an increase of 7% per year from 2018. Come to your senses. Be reasonable. CEDRIC FEBRUARY | Mitchells Plain