Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) and other affiliated unions have communicated the outcome of their meeting with the Finance Ministry to their members.
Despite the meeting with the Finance Ministry, the unions have stated that their strike is still in effect. They claim that the meeting ended in a stalemate, with no clear timeline given by the government for resolving the issues at hand.
“So as we indicated to the government, the only way we can go to work is to see something properly documented. As we are speaking, there is nothing documented. “We cannot even tell people to go to work because it’s people’s work, its people’s life, its people’s pension.
“Pension is about people’s lives so if the government is serious about addressing this issue, the government should come again.”
A member of the union stated that they will continue to push for a resolution, and will reach out to the government if they do not hear back from them within a reasonable timeframe.
“What the government is doing is very bad. Until he pays our tier two and our interest, we are all not going back to work until all our monies are paid to us. Go to the homes of our pensioners, they are not living well, it’s very bad.”
Another member of the union expressed her frustration with the situation, calling it completely unacceptable that members who have retired haven’t received their pensions.
“Government, we are pleading with you. Pay our tier two contribution otherwise the strike is not ending. We need our money. It is our hard-earned money so pay us. We need it.
“So pay all our contribution plus the interest. We need our money. We are very much aggrieved. We will not stop the strike until we get our money.”
