Lessons to be learned

THERE has been widespread condemnation among teachers following the European Court of Justice ruling that the twotier pay scale is not discriminatory, and already there are mutterings about pursuing other options to achieve pay equalisation.

Perhaps this is the time to talk to the history teachers, who might remember how the two-tier system came about in the first place.

At the height of the financial crisis, when the public sector pay bill threatened to bankrupt the country, older teachers voted to accept a deal that would see new entrants paid less while their own salaries were left intact. That might be understandable, but it is nonetheless a fact that they sacrificed younger teachers on the altar of their own determination to avoid cuts themselves.

If they subsequently have found their own actions distasteful, that too is understandable, but it does not mean they should not remember how we got to where we are, and why.