Teachers at two schools have called a halt to a work to rule, can reveal.

Staff at Spice Valley Middle School in Warwick will officially return to normal working practices today after they took action over warning letters being placed on their personal files.

Their dispute with the Ministry of Education has been passed to the Labour Relations Officer and a meeting involving all parties is scheduled for later this month.

Teachers at CedarBridge Academy in Devonshire ended their work to rule ? which meant they did classroom work but nothing outside of school hours ? last week.

It was brought in after a 14-year-old boy suspended for making vulgar comments was allowed to return to the classroom pending an appeal by his parents.

Mike Charles, general secretary of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, said last week that the CedarBridge action was about a lack of respect for teachers from the Ministry and could go on ?forever?.

But he told that it had now ended because ?we thought it was in the best interests of the teachers?.

?A work to rule is very hard on teachers,? he said. ?Teachers just want to teach.

?The work to rule means you don?t take anything home and things pile up for the teachers after a while, especially in this term where we are starting to look towards end of year.?

He said the Spice Valley action ended because ?we finally got a date for a hearing from the Labour Relations Office?.

The formal warning letters from Chief Education Officer Dr. Joseph Christopher were placed on the files of teachers after they held what the Ministry deemed an unlawful meeting with union leaders in school.

But they have now been removed pending the outcome of the meeting.

Education Minister Terry Lister said he was sorry that the Spice Valley work to rule had gone on as long as it had.

?The proper thing would have been to have stopped it right off the bat until it went to arbitration,? he said. ?I?m always disappointed when it reaches this level because I believe reasonable people will come to reasonable solutions.?

He added: ?To me these things are a clear indication of failure. It?s failure on everybody?s part. The arbitration will determine exactly what?s right or wrong. Having agreed to send it to arbitration, that?s where it ends.?

The CedarBridge row was inflamed, according to Mr. Charles, by Dr. Christopher?s refusal to sit down and talk with staff after the boy ? who suggested to another pupil he tell his teacher to ?suck your balls? ? returned to class.

But Mr. Lister said he fully backed the Chief Education Officer?s actions and believed that CedarBridge principal Kalmar Richards had the situation in hand.

?She was in charge. I would not fault Dr. Christopher at all. I believe he made a judgement based on what he saw at that point of time.?