Primary School Senior Teachers Demand Backpay

Staff Writer | Monday August 8, 2016 13:36

The case before Justice Nthomiwa in Lobatse, launched by BOSETU and BTU seeks to correct the embarrassment the senior teachers have suffered after the introduction of the LOO which resulted in supervisors being overtaken by their juniors, while in some instances, their juniors with no responsibilities raked in equal salaries as their supervisors, something that the supervisors argue is unfair.

Related to this quagmire, the supervisors at primary schools found themselves pitched at salary scale C1 when the LOO was introduced, while their counterpart at secondary schools were pitched at D4.

Also related to this, is the fact that the teachers with responsibilities at primary school are required to undergo a job evaluation assessment as a precondition to benefit from the LOO.

The unions seek to eliminate the job evaluation assessments so that these teachers are entitled to benefit from LOO without the precondition of job evaluations. In fact the trade unions want any results of job evaluations and assessments set aside and not used for the LOO benefits exercise.

The trade unions also demand in their court papers that the implementation of the LOO with respect to primary school teachers holding positions of responsibilities be backdated to July 2013 when LOO was first implemented among secondary schools who hold similar positions.

The trade unions also demand that the primary school teachers holding positions of responsibility be paid their LOO benefits including the corresponding salary arrears (back pays) from July 2013. The teachers unions also demand that the same primary school teachers with positions of responsibility and are presently graded at government salary scale C1 be graded accordingly above their counterparts who have no responsibility and are presently graded at the same salary scale.

Both the trade unions and the employer parties have already been called for roll call where the judge rescheduled it for August 31 when a date for arguments will be set.