Approximately 60 teachers have reapplied for employment, according to Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves while speaking on the radio on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Gonsalves also spoke of the first formal counter-offer made by teachers regarding the conditions that unvaccinated teachers would have to satisfy, one of the points of that counter-offer being that the teachers not be required to test for COVID-19.
“We have a number about 60 or there about—I don’t know the precise number as of yesterday—who have applied to come back into the service, some have taken the vaccine and some were prepared to take the test, as advised by the Chief Medical Officer,” Gonsalves said.
He said there was a common form letter than had been sent by several teachers to the Chief Personnel Officer, that are party to a case against the Government.
The Prime Minister then proceeded to speak more on the counter-offer made by the teachers in these letters.
“They made a counteroffer, what is the counteroffer? That there must be no requirement of testing; no wearing of masks, by the teachers who are unvaccinated, those are two of the points. They want to have it in writing, what I have said in public that they would be put at the same point in the scale when they employed as they were before, when they chose to abandon their jobs by not complying with the requirement to take the vaccine, under the law,” he said.
Prime Minister Gonsalves assured that this will be case, except for situations where the position has been filled. The Prime Minister used the position of a principal, saying that if a new principal has already been employed, there cannot be two principals. He then said the next best position will then be provided to that person in that case.
The teachers in their formal correspondence to the Government also asked that they be reinstated and be given their salaries and compensation for the months they have been out of work.
Teachers across St. Vincent and the Grenadines are attending sessions for Professional Development Week, as they prepare for the start of the new school year.
Monday August 22nd was the deadline for Teachers who did not take the COVID- 19 vaccine to apply for resumption of work.