The Association of Secondary School Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) starts balloting today on the Government's offer on supervision and substitution payments to teachers and on whether or not the union should suspend its current ban on the introduction of new syllabi.
If passed, the union would accept the Government's offer of a €37 an hour pensionable rate which also allows teachers to opt out of the supervision/substitution work if they so wish.
The union has persued a 30 per cent pay claim for the last three years but the Government maintains the provision of the payment under the PPF, combined with the benchmarking award, is an improvement of 34 per cent in teachers' pay.
ASTI's 30 per cent claim has also affected the co-operation of members with the introduction of new syllabi. The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has urged the union to co-operate with changes to the syllabi in home economics and biology in order to bring them up-to-date and to make them more relevant.
It was reported in early October that Mr Dempsey, indicated to unions that second-level teachers could be open to legal action if they did not implement new syllabuses in home economics and biology.
The ASTI convention last month voted to ballot its 17,000 members and members from 10 of the union's 56 branches will be balloted today with balloting of other branches to continue until November 19th.