Teachers will not receive their full benchmarking payments until after arbitration on parent-teacher meetings has ended, it emerged last night.
The arbitration, which begins on Monday, is expected to take two weeks, meaning teachers might not receive their increases until March. Some teachers have warned that if the money is not paid there could be serious consequences. However, teaching unions have signed up to a no-strike clause with the Government. Last week, the three teaching unions wrote to the Department of Education demanding payment of the 10 per cent pay increase to 40,000 teachers.
However, The Irish Times has learned that in its response to the unions' letter, the Department has reaffirmed its decision not to pay until the arbitration is over.
This would seem to contradict the unions' claim, contained in the letter, that if teachers have fulfilled their obligations up to December 1st last, they should receive their payment regardless. The written confirmation by the Department that they are awaiting the outcome of the arbitration process will come as a blow to teachers. Two days of talks between the unions, school management and the Department earlier this month ended without agreement, and the decision was taken to call in the public services' arbitrator, Mr Gerard Durkan SC.
During the talks, it is believed that the Department insisted that parents who are unable to attend parent-teacher meetings be allowed to make an appointment with individual teachers at a more suitable time for them.
However, teachers would receive no extra payments for these meetings, other than those allowed under the benchmarking process.