After years of frustration and stalled negotiations, teachers could soon regain their long-lost term’s vacation leave, with Prime Minister Mia Mottley announcing in Parliament that the government intends to restore the benefit as of next year.
In debate on the Public Service (Appointments) Bill, Mottley said the government was now in a position to bring closure to what she described as a “long and vexatious matter”, signalling plans to reintroduce the leave for teachers from 2026.
She told the House that she had held discussions with both the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) and had instructed the relevant ministries to begin the process of resolving the issue.
“Respect to the teachers, I took the liberty of speaking to both the general secretary of the Barbados Union of Teachers and the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union in the last 24 hours, and I’ve indicated that the government is now in a position to bring this long and vexatious matter to closure,” Mottley said.
“There will obviously be need to put in place the long-anticipated reintroduction of long leave for teachers, and we want to do it from 2026,” she told Parliament, adding that the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of the Public Service and the Ministry of Finance were expected to hold their initial meeting before the end of the year.
Mottley also suggested that the benefit might be rebranded, distancing it from what she described as its colonial-era origins.
“I suspect we will find a new name for it. Long leave tends to have implications from a colonial era with leave passage. We are not looking to do that,” she said. “We want a new name for it… that recognises that this is a case of persons needing respite and recharge.
People are human and people need time to step back, recharge and come again.”
The announcement comes after years of agitation by the unions over the suspension of term’s vacation leave in 2014, a move the BUT said was implemented without consultation and presented as a temporary measure. Under the previous arrangement, teachers were entitled to a term off with full pay after 15 years of service, and every five years thereafter.
Reacting to the prime minister’s announcement, BUT president Rudy Lovell said the union welcomed the signal of movement but stressed that teachers needed to see timely follow-through.
“The BUT is awaiting consultation on the issue of the term’s vacation leave, which we hope can be resolved by the middle or the end of January,” Lovell told Barbados TODAY.
“Teachers need to see that this concern does not continue to be plagued by administrative delays and can be concluded within a reasonable timeframe.”
Lovell said the issue had weighed heavily on morale within the teaching service, noting that many educators had spent years performing demanding roles without access to benefits previously guaranteed under the General Orders of the Public Service.
He warned that while the latest assurances — which also included the announcement of the imminent appointment of some 2 000 public service workers — represented progress, execution would ultimately determine whether confidence was restored.
“In summary, while these announcements signal progress, they must be followed by decisive execution. Teachers have waited long enough,” Lovell said. “The union hopes that this moment becomes a turning point rather than another unfulfilled promise.”
The BUT has previously pursued legal action over the matter, filing for judicial review in 2017 and receiving a High Court judgment in December 2023. Despite subsequent meetings with government officials, the union has said many teachers continue to receive rejection letters citing outdated memoranda.
While the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) has in recent months indicated that discussions on term’s leave were progressing, the issue has remained unresolved for more than a decade, periodically flaring into public dispute and threats of industrial action.
Mottley’s comments in Parliament mark the clearest indication yet from the government that a resolution may be within reach, as part of a wider effort to address longstanding human resource challenges across the public service.
(SM)
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