­The commissioners of edu­cation, the school boards, personnel representatives and the labour unions on Bonaire, Saba and St. Eu­statius signed the second ad­dendum to the labour condi­tions agreement 2021-2023 on Wednesday, June 7.

This agreement pertains to closing the wage gap between primary and secondary educa­tion; a 4% wage increase from January 1, 2022, for all person­nel in the education system; workload-related funds for schools that offer advanced education, including voca­tional education MBO; and professionalisation-related funds for schools that offer primary and advanced educa­tion, including MBO.

To close the wage gap, struc­tural funds were made avail­able from the Education Agreement and the “Her-mans motion” which was adopted by the Dutch Parlia­ment. Now that the wage gap has been closed, salary scale LA will become void and all primary education teachers will be placed in scales LB, LC and LD. This measure will apply retroactively from January 1, 2022.

Salary-related funds that were still available after clos­ing the wage gap, as well as labour-related funds left over from the labour condi­tions agreement 2021-2023, were used for a structural salary increase of 4% for all teaching and non-teaching personnel in primary and secondary secondary education and MBO.

The school boards in ad­vanced education, including MBO, were offered structur­al funds to relieve the work­load encountered by staff. Before these funds can be used, the school board must consult the schools’ partici­pation council.

School boards in primary and secondary education have also been offered extra funds to maintain profes­sionalism, knowledge and teacher expertise. They must also consult with the parent-teacher association before these funds can be used.

The measures in the adden­dum came into effect imme­diately once the addendum was signed.

The Daily Herald.