Philipsburg:--- The President of the Windward Island Teachers Union Claire Elshot said on Thursday that the union and GOA is yet to hear from Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams about the Cost of Living Adjustments which were to be paid this month to all civil servants. Elshot said Wescot Williams promised the GOA and the union to get in touch with them after her trip to the Netherlands but to date she has not done so. "My secretary will be sending a letter to the Prime Minister who is also the Minister of General Affairs on Thursday requesting an update on the COL payments."Elshot said the union needs to know what Government is going to do about the payments because as a union they are obliged to update their members. "When I call an informative meeting they consider it as industrial action but Government must realize that our members meet us on the street all the time and are requesting information on when they will receive their COL payments."
Another issue that is bothering the WITU is the fact that the Prime Minister announced on December 31st, 2011 that some Naf. 300,000.00 was allocated for the workers Christmas bonus, but none of the workers received their bonus for the holidays. Elshot said she will be seeking information from the Prime Minister on the bonus even though she knows that sometimes these payments are made in the month of February. The WITU will be meeting on Friday January 6th to start discussing their plans of action.
Pension Plan.
The Windward Island Teachers Union is currently trying to regulate its members registration in the Pension Plan program which is mandatory for all workers.
Elshot said even though the Pension Plan has become mandatory since January 1998, the St. Maarten Academy School Board is yet to register 62 of its teachers. President of the WITU Claire Elshot told reporters that one of the bottle necks was with the Chairman of the School Board who refuses to pay for the medical examination for his workers. Elshot said even though the Medical Examination has been concluded, the board of the St. Maarten Academy has to take care of the bill while they also have to submit their teachers' information so that the workers can be registered and become members of the pension plan.
Elshot said the union has been trying to regulate this matter for the past four years and while the teachers' pension premiums are deducted monthly from their salaries they are not registered. When asked if the School Board can be held liable for fraud, Elshot said she does not think so because whenever the registration takes place it will be done retroactively.