The TUI was thrown into confusion yesterday after a motion was passed which appeared to direct its leadership not to enter any pay negotiations with the Government which involved productivity.
The three teacher unions have agreed a joint motion, to be debated at all three conferences this week, mandating their leaderships to enter talks in pursuit of a salary increase which will bridge the gap between teachers and other public sector groups like nurses and the gardai. The TUI is due to debate this motion tomorrow.
However, TUI delegates yesterday backed a motion "directing" the union's executive "that no negotiations on performance-related pay in the teaching sector be entered into now or in the future". The Taoiseach has made clear the Government's intention to link future public service pay increases with agreements on productivity. Sources close to the TUI leadership expressed extreme disappointment at yesterday's vote and said the executive would have to look at the union's position in those talks in the light of it.
There were strongly-worded speeches from the floor against participating in any talks that included a productivity element.
Mr Frank Dooley, from Donegal, noted that the executive strongly opposed Government proposals to introduce productivity clauses into any public sector pay agreement, on the grounds that they would be `'inappropriate to education".
"The way you oppose those proposals is by not entering negotiations. You don't go into the enemy's camp to negotiate. You stand firm outside."
Mr Brian McGivern, also from Donegal, said before it was scrapped in Northern Ireland in 1948 the discredited productivity-related pay scheme now being proposed had been called "payment by results".
Mr Eddie Conlon, an executive member speaking in a personal capacity, said the Government wanted to "dismantle the current system of relativities whereby awards were determined on the basis of comparison with other groups" and relate pay "more closely with performance". He said this would "destroy the co-operative framework which is at the heart of the education process - member will compete against member and principals will become the appraisers of performance and alienated from their staff".
The union's general secretary, Mr Jim Dorney, said the "sole reason" the TUI was in negotiations was "to bridge the gap between our pay rise under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work, which was 6 per cent, and the pay rise of groups like the nurses, which was 16 per cent". It was the union's position that productivity-related pay agreements in education were "inappropriate" and they would hold to that line in all negotiations.
However, he warned that the only way the leadership could get pay increases for the membership was by being at the talks. "Only half the public sector unions are going to get some money out of the next pay deal. If we're not in there discussing it, we won't get that money."