Union leaders are urging Government to give teachers a significant pay rise in order to keep them in the profession, The Royal Gazette has learned.

General Secretary of the Bermuda Union of Teachers Michael Charles said yesterday that he had already begun to negotiate a new pay deal for the 700 plus teachers on the Island, and had put forward the union's suggestion for a "substantial" increase.

He would not reveal what percentage increase the union had suggested, but said it was attempting to work with the Ministry of Education to find a way to ensure teachers were given a big increase, if not in one go this year, over the next few years.

Mr. Charles has just returned from the Caribbean Union of Teachers' 30th Biennial Conference in St. Lucia and said one of the major concerns raised was the migration of teachers from the islands to better-paid jobs in the US.

And he said, although Bermuda was not yet losing so many teachers to schools overseas, it was losing them to international business and more attractive professions.

He said: "It was said at the conference that to keep teachers, the Caribbean Governments would have to pay them better salaries - and some countries have already had to do that.

"In Bermuda, we don't have a migration out of Bermuda, but we have a migration to international companies because they are snapping up people who come back to the Island with Masters degrees.

"These companies pay more, have much better benefits, offer the possibility of travel, and have better working conditions.

"Why wouldn't people go to these companies? Who could blame them?"

But he said it was not only those people leaving the teaching profession for new careers that caused concern. He said Government had to increase the pay to entice young people into classroom in the first place.

He added: "At the end of the last school year, in June, we had about 30 people leaving the public school system.''

`'We don't know where they have gone, but I am sure some of them have gone out there to businesses.

"In order to attract the best teachers and keep them, the conditions they work in must improve. Government is going to have to increase salaries substantially to match what is being offered outside, and that is what we have suggested.

"Teaching is a profession - teachers have a huge responsibility to educate our children for the future good of the country, yet they are not paid accordingly.

"In Japan and Sweden, they have compared the profession and the salary to lawyers and doctors. It is time Bermuda did the same. We have suggested some radical changes be made to pay. We are not saying the increases have to come all at once, but teachers here must be considered on a par with other professions on the Island."

Mr. Charles said a teacher starting out in their career will earn about $45,000. But a teacher on maximum salary, after eight years' service or more, will earn $58,000, unless they manage to take one of the few promotional posts.

And, contrary to belief, they are not paid for all of the holidays they get.

Mr. Charles said if teachers were paid more, the profession would probably attract a greater number of men.

He added: "A man can earn more money doing construction, so why should they bother to go to university and then teach with all the stresses and discipline problems it brings."

Education Minister Sen. Milton Scott refused to comment on the negotiations last night.