Hopeton Henry, president of Jamaica Teachers' Association. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Shelly-Ann Thompson, Freelance Writer

President of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), Hopeton Henry, yesterday said the JTA was putting its full support behind the HEART Trust/NTA's proposal for a salary increase for the agency's instructors.

Mr. Henry said the decision was taken after the JTA's central executive meeting on Friday at its Church Street, downtown Kingston headquarters.

"The central executive decided to express solidarity with the instructors of HEART Trust for those who are represented by the JTA," said Mr. Henry.

Patrick Smith, senior secretary for member services at the JTA, said that on January 8, the Government authorised a 20 per cent increase across the board for employees of the HEART Trust.

"Now the management of HEART/NTA is saying that their budget is not able to support this increase," said Mr. Smith.

Currently, there are two categories of instructors within the agency - instructor two and senior instructor. A senior instructor's annual gross salary is about $1 million, while an instructor two takes home annually a gross salary of about $800,000.

These instructors are employed at the various vocational training centres islandwide and the HEART Trust academies.

Mr. Smith noted that the increase was needed urgently to prevent the instructors from leaving.