PHILIPSBURG:--- President of the Windward Islands Teachers Union (WITU) Claire Elshot has issued a public call to the board of the St. Maarten Academy to reimburse teachers the 4.2% they deducted from all teachers salaries beginning since January 2014 for family sickness insurance.
Elshot said the union sent a letter to the board informing them that teachers are not supposed to pay the 4.2% which applies to the private sector workers. She further explained that teachers have a special insurance they pay for themselves and family members. "Actually teachers and civil servants pay two insurances in order to get to the 90% and the 4.2% does not apply to them even though they are working for a government subsidized school. Due to this deduction, teachers of St. Maarten Academy are paying triple for the same package. I called on all my members to ensure that they are registered for the pension plan because even though the pension deductions are made does not mean it is paid into the pension fund." Elshot further explained that one of the administrative staff provided a pay slip that showed some NAF. 800.00 was deducted from her salary in January for the family insurance. She said the worker wrote the school board and to date they have not received a response. Elshot further explained that the teachers of both sections wrote a collective letter along with the letter sent by the union and the board did not respond to any of the letters sent to them.
WICSU/PSU lost Court Case on COLA --- Discussions underway for COLA payments to be placed in a CLA.
Elshot also indicated that the court case initiated by the WICSU/PSU to obtain the remaining 50% of the COLA was not in favor of the union. She said that while the WICSU/PSU took the decision to go to court alone and the outcome is unfavorable, no one should rejoice because if there was a favorable decision then everyone would have been rejoicing today. "I know the decision rendered by the court is applicable to everyone. However, if the decision was favorable everybody would have been rejoicing." Elshot further explained that while the court case was initiated government had established a committee to work with the GOA to find a feasible solution for the COLA payments. She said that during the last meeting she attended they tabled a motion to have the annual indexation be placed in a Collective Labor Agreement (CLA) which would avoid the unions from fighting for this indexation annually.
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