The Teachers Association on Monday demanded that Puerto Rico’s Office of Management and Budget (OGP) release a work calendar detailing when thousands of teachers will receive $90.4 million owed for magisterial career salary increases, four months after Governor Jenniffer González announced the disbursement on June 22. Association president Víctor Bonilla Sánchez said he sent a letter on October 26 to OGP executive director Orlando Rivera Berríos and had received no reply by Monday morning.
The funds, reassigned from the prior fiscal year’s budget, cover raises owed to 5,850 active and retired teachers under the Magisterial Career Law, with some debts dating back to 2010. Before authorizing disbursement, the Oversight Board requested an audit; Bonilla Sánchez said Rivera Berríos indicated the audit would take two months, but three have passed.
The Department of Education, led by Secretary Eliezer Ramos Parés, has completed its calculations and passed the information to the OGP. General secretary Ángel Javier Pérez noted some teachers are owed up to $60,000. The union filed three lawsuits against Education in 2024, and legal adviser Edgardo Pabón did not rule out further legal action.
Separately, the Teachers Federation and ÚNETE will hold a 'Day of Teacher Indignation' demonstration Thursday at Plaza Colón in Old San Juan, which the Association will not join, citing its collective bargaining agreement.