Sir, - John Feehan states (December 13th) that teachers are overpaid, that they cannot be made redundant, and that they have no understanding of what work is like in the private sector. He is wrong on all counts.
Starting salaries in the region of £20,000 have been alluded to during this dispute. This is not an accurate figure. In excess of 95 per cent of teachers begin their careers working either on a day-by-day basis or on short term contracts. Few will find long-term employment within five years. I know of several examples of teachers who have earned less than £10,000 per annum in the first few years of their career, and who will be close to retirement before reaching the top of the salary scale.
For the first several years of employment teachers can be - and frequently are - made redundant. Interestingly they have no right to a redundancy payment when this happens. In later years they are protected, to a degree. This is surely not unreasonable within a workforce of close to 30,000, where natural wastage will always exceed any need to reduce the numbers employed.
Regarding Mr Feehan's comparison with work in the private sector, I worked for years in a variety of jobs prior to becoming a teacher. I imagine the same can be said of most teachers. I found that all jobs tend to have their difficulties, and that most have their compensations. Teaching is no different. We are claiming no special rights. We are simply insisting on that which should surely be available to all workers, the right to negotiate with our employers for a fair wage. - Yours, etc.,
Tom Tierney, Kilmainham, Dublin 8.
Sir, - How ironic it would be if the actions of the ASTI were to destroy the PPF and, through it, the social solidarity advocated by Charlie Lennon. This would leave the way open for market forces to determine all our futures, exactly what Mr Lennon suggests he does not want (December 12th). - Yours, etc.,
Brendan O'Donoghue, Tallaght, Dublin 24.