New teachers unpaid for months, says TTU

BAK · 2008-12-23T14:16:39+00:00

New teachers unpaid for months, says TTU 2008-12-23 11:49:22 By Patrick Kisembo The Tanzania Teachers` Union has called on the government to pay subsistence allowances and salaries to more than 300 newly recruited primary school teachers. Speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, TTU President Gratian Mukoba said the government owed more than 300 grade A teachers millions of shillings, being seven day subsistence allowances and six months` salaries. ``These new teachers have not been paid for the last six months since they stared work,`` Mukoba said. He added: ``There are teachers who commenced work officially in July this year, but until now, they have not been paid their subsistence allowances as stipulated by the law. Worse still, they have not been paid their wages.`` According to Mukoba, the 300 teachers were not part of the ongoing nationwide assessment of teachers` outstanding dues being conducted by the government. ``These are teachers fresh from college, who are supposed to be well attended by the government. They do not need to be assessed in any way. This scenario is very embarrassing,`` he said. ``Mistreatment of teachers contributes a lot of people running away from the teaching profession.`` He cited Monduli District in Arusha Region where some teachers were reportedly involved in grinding stones so as to earn a living. ``Female teachers have been negatively affected. TTU wants the government to work on this area immediately,`` Mukoba said without elaborating. He urged the government to rectify the reported faults in the initial payments made to settle long-standing claims. Mukoba said some teachers were paid less than they deserved. ``The first payment exercise was marred by irregularities,`` he said, adding that TTU was collecting sufficient evidence on the matter. He, however, said the government was working against its own law. ``The law says a civil servant has to be paid money and can retire it as imprest, but the government says teachers have to show tickets for the fare they had paid. However, the law does not say one has to show any tickets,`` he said. Responding to Deputy Minister of Education and Vocation Training Mwantumu Mahiza`s statement that some 17,000 teachers had presented false claims, Mukoba said the statement was disgusting. ``We are not happy with the minister`s statement, which has come at a wrong time because the government is aware that teachers are claiming their money and no single teacher has been fully paid,`` he said. He said: ``How could one say they have forged while they have not been paid any cash? This could only be proved by a court ruling, not these politics that Mahiza is talking about.`` From the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 list of teachers that the government has sent to Teachers Training Colleges , Mukoba said, the list consists dead and retired teachers who are still on pay roll. ``But what is surprising is that in the list, there are also names of teachers whose names have been repeated several times over and the amount to be paid differs,`` he said. He said the government must tell the public how it has been using money `paid` to retired and dead teachers, and to those whose names had been repeated several times over. He cited a teacher from Temeke who died in 2001 and whose name has apparently appeared in the payroll more than twice, saying the teacher had been promoted to different grades although he was dead. ``The government should stop these politics and provide us with the justice we require,`` he said. Commenting on the matter, the Minister for Education and Vocation Training, Prof Jumanne Maghembe said the government had paid dues to all teachers. ``We paid them, but it might be possible that there were some who have not been paid. If Mukoba has a list of such grade A teachers, let him bring it to us,`` said Prof Maghembe. On the issue of the government making ghost payments, the minister said there was nothing like that and if TTU had established such a case, then it had to submit names of ghost payees. The TTU and the government have been at loggerheads for several months. Last month, they staged a strike to press for payments. The strike was however, restrained by the Labour Division of the High Court following a government`s application for court injunction. SOURCE: Guardian Comment on this article

Thread starter BAK
Start date Dec 23, 2008

BAK

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New teachers unpaid for months, says TTU

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