In Latvia Yesterday, 19:4618 LIZDA promises to demand Kariņš's resignation Added

The Latvian Education and Science Workers’ Union (LIZDA) promises to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš (JV) if the government approves Cabinet of Ministers (MK) regulations no. 445 and 376, which determine the rules for increasing the salary of educators and balancing the workload.

Such a decision of the trade union was made at an extraordinary meeting of the council on Thursday.

On Friday, an emergency meeting of the government will be held, where it is planned to approve the rules of the Cabinet of Ministers on how teachers’ salaries will be raised.

LIZDA states that the main reason for the request for resignation is the delay in the implementation of the strike agreement, as well as the long-term disregard of the principles of good management.

Also, the reason for the request, according to LIZDA, is the Prime Minister’s arrogant attitude towards the invitation of industry representatives to attend the march of education and health sector workers planned for April 24. The answer has still not been received, the trade union says.

LIZDA expresses its “deepest regret for the irresponsible and arrogant policy currently implemented by the ruling coalition and believes that not listening to public opinion is a disrespectful and fruitless strategy of politicians”.

The head of the trade union, Inga Vanaga, repeatedly emphasized that there will be a strike. In Vanaga’s opinion, it is not acceptable that the Ministry of Interior offers new editorials every day, because the trade union does not have enough time to get to know each other in order to be able to determine whether all the demands and agreements of the strike have really been fulfilled.

At the same time, the Minister of Education Anda Čakša (JV) and the lawyers of the ministry have expressed hope that by approving the rules of the Cabinet of Ministers on increasing the salary of teachers and balancing the workload, the legal basis for holding a strike will disappear, as all strike agreements will be fulfilled.

TVNET already reported that the Ministry of Education and Science has submitted amendments to the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, which provide that from September 1 of this year, the lowest hourly rate for teachers, except preschool teachers, will be 8.50 euros.

At the same time, the board of LIZDA has decided to hold a protest action on April 24, as well as to start a three-day strike of pedagogues throughout Latvia.

The head of LIZDA, Inga Vanaga, during a meeting with representatives of educational institutions on Wednesday, criticized that the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science had promised that the government would approve the salary increase schedule for pedagogues by March 14, which was not done and therefore there was reason to believe that it was not approved the schedule of teacher salary increases for any group of teachers, as well as the teacher workload balancing plan for all educators.