A public school teachers' strike appeared to be off last night after Labour Minister David Burch referred their staffing row to the Labour Disputes Tribunal.

Sen. Burch's move — one day before the expiry of the union's 21-day strike notice — means it would be unlawful for teachers to engage in any type of strike or industrial action over their fight with the Ministry of Education.

Earlier yesterday, Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) general secretary Mike Charles had announced teachers would not go on strike today, but would decide this afternoon whether to take industrial action.

Mr. Charles told The Royal Gazette members would be in the classroom as normal until a meeting at 4 p.m. at St. Paul Centennial Hall in Hamilton.

He said teachers would be asked whether they want to stage a walkout after talks this week failed to resolve the row.

The 900-strong union claims the Ministry's axing of a scheme which saw substitute teachers assigned to specific schools has increased their workload by forcing them to cover extra classes every day.

Mr. Charles and BUT president Keisha Douglas were unavailable to respond to Sen. Burch's announcement last night.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Charles told this newspaper: "We do plan to meet with the membership so we can update them on where we are and get from them where we go from here.

"There was a 21-day notice of industrial action. Nothing says we have to do anything.

"We want to meet with our members first and the members decide what happens. We don't make decisions from this office."

He said the union remained hopeful that the Ministry would come up with something before the meeting to ensure strike action could be averted.

"We did meet with them yesterday and we hope that something can be worked out where everyone will win.

"The members will decide whether we need to continue talking or whether we have talked enough."

Mr. Charles said this week's talks had led to "some progress" but it fell short of what members wanted from Government.

"It hasn't been unproductive," he said. "There has been some slight improvement but it's nowhere near where the members expect to be.

"What we would like to have is that our teachers not have to be covering extra classes on a daily basis.

"We didn't have it last year so evidently something has gone wrong.

"This constantly having to cover classes is not in the best interests of our teachers or our students."

An arbitration hearing on the substitute teacher issue has been held but the union rejected the outcome as it claimed it was prevented from giving key evidence and asked for a different arbitrator.

Mr. Charles said Sen. Burch had told the union he was not inclined to appoint a different arbitrator.

Asked if the union would agree to a hearing before the same arbitrator, Mr. Charles said: "We would have to take some advice from our members on that."

Education Minister Randy Horton issued a statement late on Tuesday night about the teacher/student ratio in public schools.

He said there were about 5,536 students and 490 classroom teachers, equating to an average of one teacher for every 11.3 students.

"For clarity, principals, counsellors and para-educators are not included in these numbers," he said. "This ratio is better than most countries in the world."

Mr. Charles said the numbers did not reflect the reality in the classroom and called on the Minister to take the union and the press to a classroom where that ratio was in evidence.