Acting Minister of Education Michael Scott yesterday apologised to school teachers and their families who were not paid for their work in September, promising they would receive their pay as soon as possible.

But Shadow Education Minister Neville Darrell said the Progressive Labour Party Government needed to improve its employer-employee relationships, adding the teachers should be paid not within the month but within five working days.

Yesterday it emerged that at least four new Government teachers did not receive their pay cheques in September despite going to work.

It was also revealed that more teachers were not paid for positions of responsibility assigned to them by the Ministry of Education, and others did not receive pay increments they were owed by the Ministry.

Bermuda Union of Teachers general secretary Michael Charles said the union had been told the situation was due to a "mix-up" between the Accountant General's office and the Ministry of Education. As of Sunday night, he said the union still did not know when the teachers would be paid.

A statement released yesterday from the Ministry of Education said Mr. Scott had contacted many of the teachers concerned to give his assurance that the Ministry was "actively working with the Accountant General's department to resolve this issue quickly".

"Moreover, the Ministry is aiming to establish the usual pay process for the teachers concerned going forward," the statement continued.

"The Ministry ... also wished it to be known to all teachers who are to receive outstanding pay scale emoluments, that equal efforts are being taken today interdepartmentally to regularise the payment process with respect to their increases in pay with a view to having any outstanding pay settled in the shortest possible time."

However Mr. Darrell was anxious to see Government improve its relationship with the teachers - a relationship which historically has been "very very strained", he said, citing wildcat strikes and Island-wide industrial action taken by teachers in October of last year over pay.

"It really concerns me that the teachers find themselves in another situation with Government causing stress," Mr. Darrell said. "This is a situation where Government failed to recognise decisions they made (in promoting certain teachers), and haven't looked at normal issues like pay increments."

Government seems to have a history of forgetting to follow through, he said, noting examples such as an increase in pensions for seniors which was promised for August but has now been delayed until December due to the General Election.

"I would have thought a labour government understood the fundamental relationship between employer and employee ... They've kind of dropped the ball. They really have.

"They have all of the instruments to resolve this. Government must make every effort to get the teachers paid not in the next month, but in the next five working days."