AN APPARENT “MIS-UNDERSTANDING” between the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and its attorney Cecil McCarthy, QC, has been resolved and he has agreed to write the Ministry of Education on the union’s behalf in relation to the recent docking of salaries of members who attended union meetings on April 29 and May 4.
McCarthy spoke to the DAILY NATION after a meeting with the BUT yesterday evening, and explained that the opinion given to the BUT was not that the docking of pay was illegal.
Rather, he added, given that permissions were reportedly given for the majority of teachers by their principals to attend the meetings, and the fact that the action by the ministry was a departure from custom and practice, there were grounds for legal recourse.
“There is no precedent, certainly within recent times, for docking people’s pay in those circumstances. The Alexandra issue, for example, was a more prolonged withdrawal of labour and nobody’s pay was docked,” he said.
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