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Moving on to education, teachers and public officers have been waiting patiently for their 3 % salary increase. It was to have taken effect in April but government is pleading hard times and asking for their understanding. 

Today Education Minister Patrick Faber assured the teachers that they will be getting their increase, and the delay has nothing to do with the state of the economy but rather with Hurricane Earl.

Hon. Patrick Faber - Minister of Education
"The delay that is being sought by the prime minister to the unions is not necessarily because of the economic situation. In fact you will remember that the unions and the financial secretary shook hands and signed off on what the payment would be. And so that was intended to have been payed; enters Earl and of course you know the difficulty we saw there. So the prime minister as a result of the devastation of Hurricane Earl and the ministry of finance and the wide government having to find monies in the immediate aftermath of Earl to deal with these situations has made that plea to the group of unions that were in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations. I'm pretty sure that they met with the prime minister of Monday and I think it is the BNTU that primarily indicated that they need to take the issue of the delay to their membership so that they can then get back with the other unions to give the prime minister an answer about their position as to whether or not they can accept the proposal put forward by the prime minister."