Teachers attending a Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) Central Executive meeting yesterday voted overwhelmingly to accept the Government's revised schedule for retroactive payments due to them.

The Government, last week, said it was unable to pay out the more than $7 billion in retroactive money due to teachers this month, as promised.

But in a last-minute attempt to prevent any disruption in the education system, the administration, last Friday, met with the teachers and offered them a new proposal for the retroactive payments.

The JTA and the Government agreed last October on a wage- and fringe-benefits package, increasing the teachers' salaries to 80 per cent of the existing private-sector market, which would be paid retroactively in three payments from December 2008 to June 2009.

Doran Dixon, president of the JTA, said teachers would now receive half of April's payment in May, and the other 50 per cent in July.

"We are not dancing under the ceiling, but under the (economic) circumstances, the teachers will work with this arrangement," Dixon told The Gleaner.

The JTA boss said the teachers would continue fighting for the June retroactive payment. He noted that the Ministry of Finance had committed to meet with the teachers next month to discuss how and when the next tranche would be paid.

In the meantime, Finance Minister Audley Shaw said the Government had tacked on $4 billion dollars to the Budget to pay teachers their outstanding amounts.

This was part of an $8 billion increase in the Government's expenditure budget for the fiscal year.

Shaw made the announcement yesterday as he explained why the expenditure budget was now $555 billion instead of the $547.8, which was initially tabled in the House of Representatives.

According to Shaw, the full amount allocated to pay the teachers was $4.1 billion.

"And that represents the remaining 15 per cent increase for last year that is due to the teachers," Shaw said.