Posted: Wednesday, October 19, 2016. 6:48 p.m. CST.
By BBN Staff: The opposition, People’s United Party today issued a press release to condemn the government’s decision to withhold teachers salaries for participating in strike.
In a memo sent out yesterday the Ministry of Education informed school managers, principals and boards that GOB will be “withholding its contribution towards the salaries for individual teachers for the days when those teachers were on strike.”
The release states that the party condemns this decision by the Government “to punish the teachers for speaking out, striking and demanding good governance. The Prime Minister ruthlessly and coldy allowed this to unfold at the same time he was meeting with the joint negotiating team on Monday to resolve the impasse and end the strike.”
The opposition says that the stance of the BNTU was a just and principled one, and teachers across this country stood for what every Belizean should demand – good governance and no corruption. There was no malice in the actions by the teachers, and the PUP commends them for their brave actions.
It further explains that “As responsible educators and in a gesture of good faith, the teachers decided to return to the classroom today, only to be greeted with the news that in the ultimate bad faith gesture by government, they will receive no salary for the strike period. “
The party makes a call to the government to do the right thing and to desist from this severe punishment of teachers. They believe that this act on the part of Government demonstrates that Belizeans will be punished if they dare to go up against the government.
“That is not the democracy thousands championed in 2005 and it’s not democracy or good governance thousands are calling for now,” it stresses.
The release ends by calling on all entities including the unions, the churches, BCCI and the NGO communities to join us in ensuring that our teachers do not suffer for the stance they took on behalf of the country.
“We must have their backs as they had ours!” it accentuates.
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