Members of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) have been urged to pull out of the benchmarking agreement in a sign of the growing anger at the failure to pay their benchmarking awards.
Although it is understood that a motion at the central executive committee (CEC) of ASTI on Saturday to cease all co-operation with the terms of Sustaining Progress was not put to a vote, a similar motion demanding immediate payment of monies due under the terms of the agreement was passed almost unanimously.
The ASTI has signed up to a no-strike clause as part of Sustaining Progress. However, were such a motion to be passed, it could leave open the possibility of industrial action on the issue of benchmarking payments to teachers.
Last night senior ASTI sources who attended the meeting sought to play down any possibility of industrial action taking place.
Several stressed that the ASTI would continue to observe its commitments under Sustaining Progress, and any decision to break the terms of the agreement could put in danger further pay rises due under the benchmarking process.
It would also preclude the ASTI from partaking in the arbitration process on the question of parent-teacher meetings, due to begin later today. Others, however, were not ruling out the possibility of industrial action on the matter.
Many ASTI members feel, they say, that Mr Dempsey has breached the terms of Sustaining Progress by refusing to pay the awards.
According to ASTI president Mr Pat Cahill the issue has served to galvanise the three teaching unions.
"I'm amazed at the anger out there," said Mr Cahill.
"Quite a lot of teachers had the benchmarking payment factored in to their relationship with their banks. The fact that all three teacher unions have come together on this shows there is increasing unity among the unions on this".
Many teachers had hoped to receive their 10 per cent benchmarking payments last week.
However, the Department of Education has decided not to pay the proposed increases until outstanding issues with the teacher unions over parent-teacher meetings and the standardisation of the school year are resolved.
Earlier this month, The Irish Times revealed that the heads of all three teacher unions had written to the Department of Education stating that they had fulfilled all the requirements of Sustaining Progress and should be paid the proposed awards.
However, it is understood the Department responded by confirming that this would not now take place until after the issue of parent-teacher meetings has been resolved.
Some 170 members of the ASTI's CEC met on Saturday to discuss a number of issues of concern to its members.
It is believed much of the meeting was devoted to financial matters and included a detailed presentation from the ASTI's honourary treasurer, Ms Patricia Wroe, on how to reform the union's expenses and accounts system.
A final decision on the proposed changes was deferred until another meeting of the CEC can be arranged. This is expected to take place within the next three weeks.