Teachers in West Lithuania call off strike

TELSIAI, Lithuania (BNS) - Teachers have called off their strike action after the Telsiai district local government in northern Lithuania pledged to pay out belated salaries.

On April 12 children will return to 15 schools which had been closed for one week while their teachers were on strike.

The Telsiai mayor, Danielius Rupsys, said the local council had decided to ask the authorities in Vilnius for an interest-free loan. Local governments are in charge of paying salaries to teachers. The Telsiai local government's debt is about two million litas ($500,000). This year the local government's budget revenue targets have not been reached. To make things still worse, the central government cut its allocation of funds to regional councils.

Strike committees, local trade unions and the Telsiai region administration signed a protocol which outlines the procedure of paying the belated salaries to the region's teachers.

The local government has pledged to pay February salaries immediately, and not later than April 26, to pay the salaries for March.

The chairman of the Teachers' Trade Union local branch, Eugenijus Jesinas, said that the strike action would be renewed immediately if the local council fails to keep to its promises.