Following the ultimatum given to arts teachers in government schools to return to work or get fired, nine public service unions signed an agreement in solidarity with UNATU threatening to lay down tools if the government took action against the striking teachers.
Presenters Olive Najjuma and James Onen blamed the government for stirring constant strikes by giving in to the demands of different factions of the public sector, which they said set a precedent for other aggrieved public sector workers.
Olive faulted the government for raising the salary of science teachers by 300 percent, leaving out their arts counterparts. She opined that the move was unresearched and unfair.
Mr. Usher Wilson Owere, the chair of the chairman of National Organization of Trade Unions (NOTU), urged the Permanent Secretary of Public Service Catherine Bitarakwate who issued a letter warning arts teachers to return to work lest be fired, to pave the way for the re-negotiations of the Collective Bargain Agreement to see arts teachers’ salaries enhanced.
Fatboy said, “I’m predicting that that’s going to happen because the government can’t fire all of them." Olive also added that the government threatened arts teachers because it assumes that teachers can't leave their jobs."
Fatboy called upon other parties to join in and advocate for the salary raise of arts teachers. “It's not as though the government of this country isn’t squandering money on all kinds of useless things. We might as well give some to the art teachers and public service workers,” he emphasized.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6 am to 10 am on RX Radio.
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