The Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) is bracing for a confrontation with education officials over what it says are efforts to engage teachers at the Alma Parris Academy as independent contractors.
“This would be unprecedented in Barbados’ education sector,” BUT president Rudy Lovell said in a statement.
The union is insisting that teachers are public servants bound by the Public Service Act, the Education Act, the General Orders and other public service guidelines, including fixed timetables and scheduled work hours, in contrast to an independent contractor.
“An independent contractor is a self-employed person or business that provides specific services to a client while retaining complete control over how the work is done. The union repudiates such an attempt as it runs contrary to established hiring principles for teachers according to the laws of Barbados,” Lovell said.
The dispute traces back to how the school, in Speightstown, St Peter, was staffed when it reopened in January last year. According to the BUT, officials at the academy and the Ministry of Education Transformation have maintained that no established teaching posts exist at Alma Parris to accommodate the teachers assigned there.
The union said it had since learned that no posts had in fact been created, as recommendations at the time covered only a principal, deputy principal, guidance counsellor, and social worker, with teachers redeployed from the secondary system while keeping their substantive posts. No provision was made for part-time teachers, despite an apparent need for them, it pointed out.
The BUT charged that since reopening, the school has been hit by administrative turbulence, cycling through two principals and two deputy principals, including one instance in which a deputy principal was reverted to his substantive post after it became unclear who had authorised his appointment. It said the fallout has been visible in staffing numbers, as Alma Parris Academy now caters to just 33 students, with its teaching complement shrinking from an original 13 teachers to only six because staff left amid unresolved disputes. Lovell said they have repeatedly raised these concerns with the school’s board of management and the ministry. The BUT head said that despite active engagement between the union, the board and the ministry over anomalies in teachers’ contracts, the authorities proceeded to advertise positions at the school anyway. “The union is strongly opposed to this approach, maintaining that teachers are part of the public service and are therefore expected to operate within the framework established by the Public Service Act, the Education Act and its regulations, the General Orders, and other applicable public service guidelines, which include following a timetable and scheduled work time,” Lovell said.
He said that independent contractors can negotiate the terms and conditions of work and pay.
“Simply put, an independent contractor is a self-employed person or business that provides specific services to a client while retaining complete control over how the work is done. The union repudiates such an attempt as it runs contrary to established hiring principles for teachers according to the laws of Barbados.”
He added that the union has exhausted every avenue in an effort to have this matter resolved pointing out that officials at the school and the Ministry of Education Transformation have maintained that there are no established teaching posts at the Alma Parris Academy to accommodate the teachers who were selected and assigned to the school by the ministry from January 2025.
“The union views this action as unacceptable and is making it clear that it intends to protect its members and their rights at all costs,” Lovell said.
Efforts to reach officials at the Ministry of Education Transformation for a comment on the matter were unsuccessful. (PR/DDS)
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