Under their new contract, D.C. teachers were owed back pay since 2019. About 5,500 teachers were expecting roughly $10,000 each next week depending on pay level and seniority, the teachers union told the News4 I-Team.
The new teachers’ contract was agreed to in November, when the teachers union says D.C. agreed to issue back pay checks May 19.This week, Teacher Appreciation Week, that date slipped. Now, teachers will only get partial payment next week and the rest June 16.
D.C. blamed the delay on the intense processing that must be done for each payment. In a statement, D.C. City Administrator Kevin Donohue told the I-Team, “We greatly appreciate and celebrate the hard work of our DCPS educators. We’re proud of the historic collective bargaining deal we reached with the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU), delivering compensation increases and robust back pay. All WTU members will receive a partial retroactive payment on May 19 and the remaining amount on June 16. This delay is to ensure every WTU member receives the correct payment amount for what they are owed. We are working in good faith to ensure the payments are made as quickly as possible to WTU members.”
In a letter to the teachers union, Donohue explained the team processing the payment only has six staffers. Adding more, Donohue wrote, would delay the payments even more due to the intense training necessary to get it right.
The letter explained the worst-case scenario would be paying too much and trying to get it back.
Donohue also suggested the number of bargaining units in the city makes it harder.
“They (DC leaders) knew this date was coming,” Washington Teachers’ Union President Jacqueline Pogue-Lyons said. “It’s been six months. To find this out during Teacher Appreciation Week is both disappointing and disrespectful.”
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