The Department of Education must give teachers detailed salary advice so they know what money is owed to them and what the money is for, the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said on Thursday.
”What adds to the confusion is the fact that when payments are made, there is no explanation of what the payment is for, or for which period,” said Naptosa director Dave Balt at a meeting in Pretoria where teacher unions were gathering to declare a dispute with the department over outstanding payments to teachers.
Naptosa also called on all provincial education departments to meet their commitments to all educators in terms of entitlement for increases for salary and grade progression.
Grade progression is a project undertaken to remunerate teachers ranked as ”good” or above, for their service. Balt said some teachers are owed money since 2005.
However, the department slammed unions for ”misinformed and inflammatory” remarks over the alleged defaulting of wage increases and payouts. A settlement agreement for wage increases has been fulfilled by the department, said spokesperson Lunga Ngqengelele.
The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said on Saturday that increases and incentives that were agreed upon in April had only been paid out to three provinces. About 200 000 teachers were affected, it said.
”There is really no basis for Sadtu to make such misinformed and inflammatory statements,” Ngqengelele said.
He said payments for wage increases in the Free State, Western Cape and Northern Cape had been made by July. Mpumalanga, Gauteng, the North West and KwaZulu-Natal have until the end of December to effect payments. Limpopo and the Eastern Cape have until March 31 next year to comply.
”Therefore all terms of the agreement have been fulfilled by the department,” said Ngqengelele. — Sapa