A chara, – It must be remembered that, unlike some recent high-profile industrial disputes, the 18,000 members of the ASTI are not seeking a pay rise nor are they looking for an improvement in working conditions. What they are asking for is simply equal pay for equal work and also to actually get paid for work that they are doing.
New and recently qualified teachers are not only faced with years of casual short-term contracts, but an inferior rate of pay for doing exactly the same work as their more established colleagues. Three teachers working side by side, doing exactly the same job with exactly the same duties and responsibilities could be on three different pay scales.
Some teachers stand to lose many tens of thousands of euro in career earnings; for example, an ASTI teacher starting in 2016 is being paid 20 per cent below the 2010 starting salary.
It is therefore not surprising that teachers have voted overwhelmingly to stand up for the most vulnerable teachers in their schools and take action to end this injustice. After all, many of these younger teachers now being discriminated against were actually our pupils just a few short years ago.
The Government’s demand that ASTI members do supervision and substitution duties for free while members of other unions are actually getting paid for this work is equally ridiculous.
Next month, we could be faced with the absurd situation of the Government rounding up hundreds of unqualified and inexperienced people, possibly not even fully Garda-vetted, and paying them handsomely to enter our schools and classrooms while ASTI teachers who are both capable and willing to do this work for less look on. To my mind this does not make any sense, but unfortunately it is typical of what I term this Government’s intimidating attitude towards the ASTI in recent times.
The ASTI has fulfilled all of its obligations under the Haddington Road agreement and to the best of my knowledge has never broken any agreement with the Government. In October 2015, ASTI members voted to reject the Lansdowne Road Agreement by a margin of three to one. For the last three years (and for many decades in the past) ASTI teachers have carried out supervision and substitution work for free on the understanding that on the completion of the Haddington Road agreement payment would be restored. This has not occurred, and this Government seem intent to force and intimidate the ASTI into accepting the compromised Lansdowne Road agreement by reneging on a host of previous agreements and understandings.
Eventually all industrial disputes are ended by negotiation, and this one should be no different. But when they begin, these negotiation must take place without any preconditions. Currently when ASTI negotiators enter Government Buildings they are met with the colossal precondition of the financial emergency measures in the public interest (Fempi) legislation-a huge metaphorical gun to the head.
The ASTI maintains that this unfair Fempi legislation is being used to punish trade unions who do not sign up to collective agreements. This diminishes the role of collective bargaining and normal industrial-relations processes.
It is rightly seen by teachers as a bullying tactic. – Is mise,
KEVIN P McCARTHY,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.
Sir, – This dispute is more than just a pay issue. First, we have pointless initiatives such as literacy plans without funding for books or librarians. Second, the Government hasn’t replaced middle-management posts, meaning vulnerable children are falling through the cracks. Third, we have pointless paperwork, such as writing health and safety sections in an English report and learning outcomes that are as obvious as being told to breath. Finally, we have a dumbed-down curriculum.
Let’s broaden the debate. – Yours, etc,
BARRY HAZEL,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Further to "Parentds may run schools if teachers strike" (October 15th), the Minister of Education has decided that rather than restore the agreed pay structure to teachers for the supervision and substitution scheme, he will now pay non-qualified people to come in and do the same job instead. An Irish solution to an Irish problem? – Yours, etc,
RICHARD
BERKELEY,
Castlebar,
Co Mayo.