Teachers' union leaders are to meet with the Ministry of Education today to thrash out salaries and other issues after teachers chose to boycott a Government seminar on the public schools.

The Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) advised its members not to attend the presentation meeting on Tuesday this week, which had been arranged by the Ministry to discuss future planning of the public education system.

As a result there was a low turn out, and, instead, a meeting has been arranged between the Ministry and the BUT executive today so the subject of wages and teacher evaluation can be discussed.

General secretary of the union Michael Charles said: "We did advise our members to absent themselves because we have some issues which need to be resolved.

"They include salaries and teacher evaluations, and some other things which have been hanging around for a long time.

"Before we start anything new, we would like to get this finished.

"As far as we understand it, this initiative (of future planning) will probably make more demands on teachers."

He said Government could not make any improvements or changes to the public education system without teachers, so therefore it would require buy-in, and probably more work, for them.

Mr. Charles said although the union only completed teacher contract negotiations with the Ministry earlier this year, it was time to start all over again.

He said the union had agreed to accept the salary negotiation for one year, as suggested by the Ministry, because of the economic climate at the time.

That deal ran out on August 31 so now the union is negotiating again, but Mr. Charles said there were still some unresolved issues from last time to debate, which he did not wish to disclose at this time.

The general secretary said the Ministry had held a three-day retreat in the summer to discuss the issue of public education, and how it could become the first choice of parents.

And he said he believed the meeting held earlier this week were to discuss the outcome of that retreat.

He added: "There are outstanding things that we want to get sorted out before we even ask our members to be part of something that is going to give them more to do."

A statement released by the Ministry of Education yesterday said the meeting with teachers had been arranged by the Department and that Minister Paula Cox was not there as she was in Cabinet.

It read: "The Ministry of Education and Development, with the onset of the new school year, wished to initiate dialogue and to share planning information with the teachers as the relevant stakeholders.

"There were lesser numbers present than one would have originally hoped.

"This low attendance may have been prompted by, and be as a result of, a letter received on Monday addressed to the Ministry advising of issues that the BUT had concerns about.

"The Ministry has responded in writing to this correspondence and confirm that a meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (today) to have further dialogue with the BUT executive.

"We expect that these meetings will prove fruitful and productive."