70,000 teachers threaten strike as pay row grows
United front from three unions warning they will shut down schools later this year
THE country’s 70,000 teachers have joined forces for a united campaign on pay, with the threat of strike action and school closures in the autumn if there is no commitment to end two-tier pay rates.
In a show of unity not seen since 1985, all three teacher unions have voted for strike ballots next month if there is no acceptable progress on restoring equal pay for new entrants to the profession since 2010.
Delegates at both the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) voted unanimously in favour of a common motion on the issue, which was debated at all three conferences simultaneously yesterday.
Meanwhile, at the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) support for the motion was overwhelming.
Education Minister Richard Bruton was repeatedly heckled by protesters at the ASTI conference as he outlined the resources the Government had devoted to the education sector over recent years.
“We have found €1bn extra for education. I have developed the Action Plan for Education. That has set a bold ambition that by 2026 we will have the best education system in Europe,” he said.
It was greeted with loud jeers from the floor, forcing repeated interruptions in his speech, with delegates shouting “equal pay”, “pay up” and “better school resources”.
Earlier at the INTO conference, the minister faced a silent protest, with delegates holding “equal pay” placards aloft, and some intermittent heckling.
Mr Bruton told the INTO conference that teachers had a “justifiable demand” but he would not go further to say if and when the Government was ready to end two-tier pay scales.
Negotiations on restoring pay equality in the public service, including to 16,000 teachers, will get under way on April 27.
A report has put the cost of granting pay equality to more than 60,000 public servants recruited since 2010 at €200m, including €59m for teachers.
Mr Bruton told INTO delegates that the Government was “committed to making progress on this issue” but later told reporters that the pay demand, while justifiable for unions, had to be balanced with other spending needs.
He said there was “goodwill on the Government’s side and trade unions are making the case that the 2010 change constitutes unequal treatment. I have to weigh not just teachers legitimate requests for equal pay but to balance that with the need to make up for the last lost decade”.
Opposition support for teachers’ demands, and all parties on an election footing, puts the Government under considerable pressure to settle the issue.
ASTI president Ger Curtin said pay inequality had dogged the profession for seven years and “we will not let this drag on into another school year”.
The ASTI boss said it was misleading to refer to a starting salary of €36,000 for young teachers when many young entrants only get three or four hours’ work each week.
“That is assuming they get full hours and a significant number of young teachers do not get full hours – some of them don’t get full hours for a long, long time.”
TUI president Joanne Irwin told her conference that “Government, it seems, will only be brought kicking and screaming to its senses. If it must be so, then so be it.
“We would much prefer that they would be persuaded by the demands of justice but if that does not happen we have other means to persuade them.”
Ms Irwin said the “discriminatory pay system put in place by our political masters” is not just morally wrong, but counterproductive and regressive.
“It is damaging an indispensable part of our social and economic infrastructure – our excellent public education system. It is hurting not only our teachers but also our students.”
She said the “pay of teachers has been severely attacked for almost a decade”, leaving many with commitments and debts they have been “very hard pressed to meet or, in many cases, unable to meet”.
One delegate, John McCarthy, from Cork, said “it’s an absolute disgrace that, in this day and age, we have yellow-packed them (young teachers)”.
INTO president John Boyle said “every waking hour” of his year in office had been dominated by the issue of equal pay.
He said the motion was “designed to ensure that our negotiators are fortified” when they begin discussions with Government.