Redman discusses appointments

The appointment of temporary teachers in the service is definitely engaging the attention of the country’s oldest teachers’ union and they are hoping to have the issues settled soon.

 

President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU), Mary-Anne Redman, said there are several problems with the process; with the composition of some of the interviewing panels and the way in which some persons are being recommended for appointment, being among the main bones of contention. 

 

Redman disclosed that the Union on Wednesday passed a resolution regarding appointments, as she indicated that the BSTU has always held – that the person acting for the longest period of time should be recommended first – but this seems not to be the case. She spoke to these issues in an interview with the media yesterday evening after meeting with BSTU members at Solidarity House.

 

“Another aspect that we looked at is that persons go for interviews and in most instances they are not told if they have been recommended for appointment or not, and that is an issue that we had asked the Ministry of Education to indicate to the board – that they should at least let persons know if they have in fact been recommended or not,” she stated.

 

Questioned about Government’s recent announcement in the Budget that a Working Committee will be set up to advise Cabinet on a programme to appoint all temporary officers in the Public Service with more than three years’ continuous service, at a threshold date to be determined, Redman said this has been provided for in the Public Service Act and should have been done before now.

 

“I don’t know what all the hee haw and song and dance is about. We still have members who should have been appointed under the Act effective from the January 1, 2008, because they were in established posts and they had been in those posts three years prior. So their appointments should have been automatic. What is the song and dance about? Those people have been disadvantaged for over ten years, they have been held back financially, professionally and otherwise,” she lamented.

 

Redman’s comments came as she revealed that the BSTU is looking to institute grievance procedures against one of the secondary schools and against the Chief Personnel Officer. While not providing many details on the matter, She did reveal that it involves one of their members, a temporary teacher who was working for four years, but was not rehired. She said they have laid out four grounds for their grievance, as they try to clarify exactly what has occurred in that situation.

 

“The Barbados Secondary Teachers Union had a grievance procedure agreed to by the Ministry of the Civil Service even before one existed in law. One now exists in law under the Public Service Act, the Fourth Schedule, and it is very clear there the timeframe in which certain things must occur. There is a process and the process must be followed within a given timeframe and we are expecting that as supposedly responsible officials of Government, they will follow the timeframes and follow through with the process. On our end we will certainly do what we have to do in keeping with best practice and following due process, so that there will hopefully not be the need to take it any further than having the grievances resolved,” she stated. (JRT)