WILLEMSTAD - On Tuesday February, Ministers Eugene Rhuggenaath (General Affairs), Kenneth G,ijsbertha (Finance) and Marilyn Alcala-Walle (Education) met with the representatives of the teachers’ union Sitek. In the morning, the parties searched for several documents necessary for the negotiations. After this, the union continued their meeting with the Minister of Education to finish dealing with the points of concern together with the union representatives.

After the meeting with the ministers, experts in the field met until late in the evening on the propositions which were then presented to the Council of Ministers and the union.

Sitek indicated that they have to review the document internally and present it to their members.

The following propositions have been presented:

VSBO teachers will see a reduction in their work hours from 32 to 27 a week.

Teachers A that have been working for five years will automatically be promoted to level B, which means an increase in salary. They will receive an extra promotion once they are promoted.

Non-teaching personnel that now have between 19 to 25 vacation days will receive 38 days a year.

Each classroom should be cleaned up every day.

The education sector must be treated as a separate sector with special conditions for the personnel.

Set a new date for the parties to meet to negotiate on the other points of the covenant.

The government will discuss this document internally and also wait for a reaction from Sitek. The teachers also indicated that if they are not satisfied with the document, they will continue their actions.