ASTI:The secondary school teachers' union has called on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) to renegotiate the pay element of the current social partnership agreement, Towards 2016, due to what they term the "significant increase in the cost of living" experienced by all workers since it was adopted last year.
In a surprise move, some 500 delegates at the 17,000-strong union's annual convention unanimously voted in favour of an emergency motion on the subject.
The general secretary of the ASTI, John White, is expected to formally communicate the union's views to Congress in the near future on foot of yesterday's vote.
At the conference yesterday, the general secretary of Ictu, David Begg, told The Irish Times the issue of inflation was a "perfectly reasonable thing to be concerned about". He said Ictu was monitoring carefully the rate of inflation, which is projected to fall towards the end of the year.
He also revealed that he was due to discuss this and other matters with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at a meeting later this month.
"The increase in the rate of inflation has been a point of concern for us all," he said.
However, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has said there is no prospect of the Government renegotiating the Towards 2016 agreement.
She said partnership agreements had stood the country "very well" over the years and that the issue of teacher pay could be dealt with in the context of the benchmarking process.
Under the terms of Towards 2016, teachers receive pay rises of 10.4 per cent in four phases over 27 months.
However yesterday's meeting heard calls from delegates for the ASTI to encourage other unions to adopt similar motions calling for a renegotiation of the pay element of the deal.
Support for the emergency motion also came from outgoing ASTI president Michael Freeley in his address to the convention yesterday evening.
Mr Freeley said that 82 per cent of the ASTI members and 75 per cent of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) members had rejected Towards 2016, which he said allowed for pay increases "well-below the rate of inflation".
"But yet we are faced with a situation where others can decide to worsen our conditions of employment," he said. "This is completely unacceptable and should never happen again.
"I wish to express solidarity with the nurses' unions in their demands for improved pay and conditions. We must respect our caring professions - nurses and teachers - where we have an ethos of dedicated service."
The motion adopted yesterday calls on Ictu to renegotiate the pay terms of Towards 2016 "owing to the significant increase in the cost of living experienced by all workers subsequent to the adoption of Towards 2016 in September 2006".
Several delegates who spoke in support of the motion strongly criticised the pay deal, with one suggesting teachers were now delivering extra productivity for what was effectively a "pay cut".