or at weekends in response to an arbitration ruling over working hours.

Bermuda Union of Teachers general secretary Mike Charles said his members will work no more than the mandatory 35 hours a week because they are not being paid for the overtime.

The action could lead to delays in marking school work and in preparing for lessons.

And he revealed that teachers have lost confidence in Education Minister Milton Scott, a former BUT general secretary.

He said teachers had vowed to stop doing preparation work at home because they will not be paid overtime as they cannot prove to principals they carried out extra work.

Teachers take action When asked what effect this would have on schools, Mr. Charles said: "Some things might have to be left back, but we don't know until we start doing it.

"We will work within the school day only and if something is not done on a Monday it will have to be done on a Tuesday.'' The vote was taken last night at a meeting in CedarBridge Academy as teachers met to consider their response to the arbitration ruling of Postmaster General Clevelyn Crichlow. He was called in after strikes closed all but two public schools in October as teachers protested at being forced to do over the mandatory 25 hours a week class work.

Mr. Charles said the arbitrator had ruled that teachers are mandated to work 35 hours a week and should seek extra payment for anything above that.

"Teachers have no alternative but to accept this since we went to arbitration,'' he said. "Teachers are saying that now he has said that, they will work 35 hours a week and nothing more because we can't prove the extra work because it's at home at nights or the weekend.

"Because there is no way we can prove the work on Saturday or Sunday, we are saying we will do all our work in school and when it amounts to 35 hours a week, we will stop.'' Referring to Sen. Scott, he said: "The sentiment we have got is that teachers have lost confidence in the Minister. To have someone lead the union in the fight for this same thing and have him moving onto the other side...begs the question: `Did he really believe in it, or was he just getting paid as a hired gun?' EDUCATION ED