Seventeen teachers at
Fatoto Upper Basic and Senior Secondary School embarked on a two-day industrial
sit-down strike over lack of payment of their double-shift allowance.
The teachers of the
school in Fatoto, Upper River Region, were in school but refused to get into
their classrooms to teach on Thursday and Friday claiming they have not
received their double-shift allowance since September 2012.
About five hundred
students are affected in the said strike.
A teacher on double
shift in government school in the country earns 50 per cent more of his monthly
salary for additional shift taken.
A qualified teacher with
Higher Teachers Certificate of the Gambia College at a government school earns
about D3,000 per month as basic salary, and other allowances depend on the
location – whether urban or rural – of the teacher.
“We are absolutely
dissatisfied with the lack of payment of our double-shift salary since
September 2012 and no official reason has been given for this,” an aggrieved
teacher, who wished not be named, said.
However, the industrial
action of the teachers yielded dividend as the school authorities swiftly
intervened to resolve the matter.
The teachers will now
resume teaching today, Monday, as they have reached an agreement with the
school authorities that the payment of their double-shift allowance will start
end of this month, March 2013.
Initially, the teachers
said they were ready to continue the sit-down strike until the authorities are
ready to resolve their concerns.
