Shaw: We are going to have to hug up another $15 billion above and beyond what is being paid to the teachers now.

Finance and Public Service Minister Audley Shaw has accused his predecessor of signing an "open-ended agreement" with the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) in 2006, without Cabinet endorsement.

Shaw charged yesterday that Dr Omar Davies unilaterally gave approval for a company to conduct a study to bring teachers salaries up to 80 per cent of those in the private sector.

He said there was no Cabinet approval, noting that the only evidence of authorisation he had seen was Davies' "flashy signature".

Budgetary implications

Shaw also suggested that Davies approved the agreement without any reference to the budgetary implications.

"We are going to have to hug up another $15 billion above and beyond what is being paid to the teachers now over the next two years, and this is retroactive from April 2007," he said yesterday, at the launch of Cuna Mutual Group's new product - the Payment Protector Rider.

It was launched at the Hilton Kingston hotel.

No obligation

The finance minister later told The Gleaner that Davies' decision to ink the agreement without Cabinet's approval revealed gross inadequacies in terms of the decision-making process of the previous administration.

"It is saying we agree to this company doing this study, and whatever are the recommendations of this study we are going to accept it," Shaw added.

Focal Point Consulting Limited was contracted by the previous administration to undertake a study to compare the salaries of public school teachers to those in the private sector.

Several attempts up to last night to reach the former minister for comment were unsuccessful.

Pressed to comment on the authenticity of the agreement, Shaw said the administration had an obligation to carry out agreements that had been signed by the previous Government.

Last week, the Government made a new offer to teachers, following weeks of tough negotiations between JTA officials and their counterparts at the Ministry of Finance.

Teachers are expected to vote on the offer at a special delegates conference on Saturday, October 25.

The Gleaner has been reliably informed that the deal, which will see teachers' salaries being increased to 80 per cent of their private sector counterparts, has been widely accepted by 22,000-strong membership of the JTA.

As part of the deal, teachers will receive retroactive payments in three tranches beginning in December and ending in June 2009.