A formal move to persuade the three teacher unions to adopt a common strategy in pursuit of a 30 per cent pay claim has been initiated by the main secondary teaching union.
The escalation of the teachers' pay battle comes as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, insisted twice yesterday that the Government would not tolerate any special pay claims outside the new national pay deal.
At a Fianna Fail function in Cork last night he warned that breaching the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness would lead to "a return to an era of industrial disputes, to job losses, to high inflation and falling living standards". In interviews throughout yesterday Mr Ahern firmly ruled out extra pay rises for groups such as teachers.
The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) sought the support of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) and the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) at a private meeting in Dublin. The ASTI is due to formally lodge its 30 per cent pay claim at a meeting with Department of Education officials next Tuesday.
It is understood the president of the ASTI, Ms Bernadine O'Sullivan, invited the TUI and the INTO leadership to join the ASTI's campaign for a 30 per cent pay rise. Ms O'Sullivan has already signalled that the ASTI may be prepared to disrupt next year's Leaving Certificate if the Government does not concede the claim.
In a letter seen by The Irish Times the general secretary of the ASTI, Mr Charlie Lennon, asks the TUI executive to consider "the ASTI claim for an increase of 30 per cent in the light of the inadequacy of the early-settlers agreement and in the light of the productivity given by teachers".
The INTO and the TUI rejected the ASTI's overture and said they were bound by the provisions of PPF, which includes a "benchmarking process" which could reward teachers for improvements in productivity.
The TUI wrote to the ASTI and asked for answers to several questions about the 30 per cent claim, but they have yet to be answered.
In writing to the other teacher unions the ASTI hopes to build on the considerable opposition to the PPF among teachers in the run-up to the teacher union conferences later this month. While TUI members voted against the PPF, it has agreed to be bound by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' decision to back the deal. The INTO voted by the narrowest margin to support it.
Amid growing Government concern about pay claims, Mr Ahern said in Killarney yesterday that to concede any pay claim outside the terms of the PPF "would be unfair, could undermine the core structure of partnership and might easily herald a free-for-all situation whereby low-paid people and other vulnerable groups in our society would suffer most".
Reflecting concern that conceding any large pay rises could lead to the PPF unravelling, he added last night that the Government "cannot and will not allow individual groups to pursue their agendas to the detriment of the wider community".
He said the Government would not entertain "a two-tier approach whereby some, because of sector or company, would seek to gain undue advantage over everyone else, irrespective of the merits of any given case".