Members of the ASTI union which represents secondary school teachers this evening voted in favour of accepting a deal on supervision and substitution bringing to an end a long-running industrial campaign that severely disrupted classes.
The union said this evening 63 per cent of teachers voted in favour of accepting the €37 an hour supervision offer which has already been accepted by the Teacher's Unions of Ireland and the INTO. This offer is pensionable.
ASTI members had previously refused to perform supervision duties forcing many schools to close and others to put in place a costly scheme of using non-teachers for this task. The union has also lifted its ban on participating in syllabus change. Just over 50 per cent of the union's 7,000 members cast their vote.
The acceptance was welcomed by the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, who said: "All the teacher unions have now accepted the deal on supervision and substitution and I believe that the result this evening is the foundation stone for putting relations with the unions back on an even level."
"I have stated on a number of occasions the importance of syllabus change, which was sought by both teachers and students, and I am pleased that the ASTI have balloted in favour of lifting the ban on syllabus change," added Minister Dempsey.