Teachers have received a long-awaited pay increase.

Nine months after the last contract between the Bermuda Union of Teachers and the Education Ministry expired, BUT president Michael Charles said teachers welcomed a three-percent raise and retroactive pay.

Arbitrators in March stepped in to resolve a six-month contract dispute between both parties.

It was agreed that teachers' salary and honoraria -- the fee for participating in extra-curricular activities -- would be increased by three percent.

The amount of leave for union business was also increased from 21 to 25 days.

And teachers won two days in September, prior to the first day of classes, to prepare their classrooms and attend meetings or workshops arranged by principals.

They also gained three days of personal leave during the month of September, prior to the beginning of classes, to accompany their children to school abroad.

The agreement was backdated to September last year since teachers had been working without a contract since August 31, 1997.

But last month Mr. Charles complained that teachers were still waiting for the increased salary.

And despite sending a letter to Education Permanent Secretary Marion Robinson, Mr. Charles said teachers did not know when they would receive the increase nor whether they would get the retroactive pay.

Therefore, he added, they could not budget for it.

However, yesterday he confirmed that teachers received their pay last week.

"I don't know if everyone got what they expected because of the different pay scale levels,'' Mr. Charles said.

"But in the main, teachers have expressed relief in that they did receive their retroactive pay.'' "There are some issues we still have grievances on, such as the length of the school day,'' he added.

"We're waiting for the Labour Relations Officer to come back to us on that.'' Mr. Charles noted that schools were working to address other concerns, such as guaranteeing that teachers receive the lunch period due them.

Many schools had resolved the problem of teachers working during their lunch hours by rescheduling classes.

He said: "Hopefully in the new school year we will have everything sorted out.

"But for now teachers are just concentrating on completing the school year.''