Photo: RNZ/ Dan Cook
Vanuatu's Supreme Court has quashed a Teaching Service Commission decision to suspend and terminate over 600 teachers for participating in a strike.
The court also declared that the industrial action, which started on 6 June last year and recalled on 10 August 2024, remains lawful.
The Vanuatu Daily Post reported the strike was initiated by the Vanuatu Teachers Union over payroll issues.
Judge Edwin Peter Goldsbrough, who presided over the judicial review, delivered his ruling in a courtroom packed with union members last week.
He stated that he found no evidence to support a finding that the industrial action was unlawful through alleged procedural irregularities.
The union dedicated the victory not just to teachers, but to all workers in the country.
According to a timeline from the Ministry of Education and Training, the union notified the Commissioner of Labor of its intention to strike in early May 2024.
The primary claim in the notice was the transfer of the teachers' payroll budget from the Ministry of Education and Training to the Teaching Service Commission.
A conciliator was appointed but after three sittings a party did not turn up, so the meeting could not proceed.
The union then started industrial action on 7 June, before an undertaking agreement was signed on 17 June by the union, the Teaching Service Commission and the ministry.
On 5 August, the three parties met for a final review of the claims to be included in the collective bargaining agreement together with a payment plan.
The Vanuatu Teachers Union expressed disapproval with the payment amount, but said its members would return to the classroom once they received the first payment in their accounts.
As they waited, the number of suspensions issued by the Teaching Service Commission continued to rise.
In a statement in March this year, Minister of Education Simil Johnson said the government has "shown its commitments to implement the content of the Council of the Minister's Paper to settle the four billion [vatu] outstanding".
The Ministry also said multiple claims were unsubstantiated.
In one instance, 1192 teachers claimed principals and deputy principals' allowances. The verification process saw 496 of those claims paid, 235 considered, which cost about 25,180,000 vatu, and 461 were unsubstantiated.
Johnson said in the same statement the Government had already begun "paying teachers legal entitlements" and there was "no way" it would not pay fot all other legal entitlements.
"I urge all government-paid teachers to continue in their professions as teachers and school administrators and let government do its part in getting teachers' entitlements paid accordingly," he said.
