Teachers association in T&T protests at MOE headquarters over unpaid insurance

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: The Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) gathered for a protest on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education to demand their unpaid Insurance claims.

The teachers staged a controversial protest outside the headquarters and demanded their longstanding UNIMED claims, which according to them had been unpaid for two years.

The president of the TTUTA, Martin Lum Kin stated that the employers are deducting their dues under the UNIMED plan but not providing the subsequent benefits of the same.

“The employer has no hesitation in deducting the dues for this plan, however, members who are claiming are not getting the subsequent remittance of their claims,” the president noted.

Lum Kin further noted that the teachers are worried about the claims as it is taking years to be processed and fulfilled. Reportedly, the unsatisfactory response by the authorities caused outrage among the teachers leading to a protest demanding their rights.

President Lum Kin further noted that the process just took 4 weeks to initiate but it has been more than 13 months and they haven’t received any decision.

He said that there are thousands of more teachers who are in line to be added in the health plan and this has been a cause of internal administrative issues in the ministry.

“This issue has caused the teachers to buy additional insurance, further leading to another financial burden,” Lum Kin said.

According to Lum Kin, the Ministry is denying any applications made stating there is no evidence of the same. He further emphasized that this leads to frustration among those who come to them with proper documentation and certainly being told of no evidence of their application.

However, the Ministry of Education in response to the incident has not spoken yet but the comments on social media are getting viral with their parted views.

One of the users named Brian D Trim said, “Yes, and similarly all police officers (retired) who are denied their backpay by supposedly a set of lies, should have Edward Street populated.”

“The government is spending your insurance money to build a $120 million building for Pan Trinbago. See how they care about you?” another user said.

On the other hand, Akesha Ashe criticized the association as she wrote, “Always before school reopens. Why not do it all during the holidays? but no they enjoy their vacation, and paid leave and as schools are about to start back all of a sudden, they remember they aren’t getting paid for this.”