The INTO is to begin preparing plans for industrial action, should benchmarking fail to deliver on the union's pay objectives.
In the first motion of its conference in Limerick yesterday, the delegates voted unanimously for the central executive committee to prepare contingency plans for a campaign of action.
The plans are to be enacted should the report in June of the benchmarking body be unsatisfactory to the union. The motion also instructs the CEC to convene a special conference following the benchmarking report.
The general secretary-designate, Mr John Carr, said the executive would not shirk its responsibilities in pursuing the union's pay demands, even if that meant embarking on a campaign of industrial action to achieve legitimate rights.
Mr Carr said he was committed to achieving the union's goals through negotiating procedures and industrial action would represent a failure of negotiations.
However, he said, negotiations would no longer be an option if benchmarking was linked to unacceptable conditions or limitations. "We will vigorously pursue a satisfactory outcome, even if that requires tough negotiations and, if necessary, drastic actions."
The union is seeking an increased salary scale starting at €25,000 and climbing to over €50,000, a reduction from a 25-point to a 12-point pay scale, a long-service increment of 10 per cent of the maximum point of the scale, a minimum allowance of €12,698 in the principals' allowance and an increase of 20 per cent in all other allowances.
Mr Carr said it must be clear that the INTO expected that any agreed reward and career structure would be implemented within the time frame of the PPF.
Moving the motion, Mr Noel Ward of the Tallaght branch said it was time for teachers to unite on the pay issue.
"Whatever the Government may think about divisions among teachers, the anger that an inadequate benchmarking report will unleash will be seismic," he said.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, thanked the INTO for its participation in and co-operation with the benchmarking process. He said he was still confident that the benchmarking process could ensure that pay and conditions applying to teachers in the future would be comparable with other graduate professions.
