Teachers’ strike ‘does down’ Leaving Cert students, Kenny says

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called for an end to the teachers’ dispute which has closed secondary schools for a third day on Tuesday.

Some 500 schools are closed on Tuesday due to action by members of the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland (ASTI) over pay for new entrant teachers. The closures are set to continue on Wendesday as a result of a dispute between the ASTI and Department of Education over substitution and supervision duties.

The Cabinet discussed the matter of public service pay on Tuesday in light of the industrial disputes involving teachers and gardaí.

Speaking in the Dáil afterwards, Mr Kenny said he hoped there would be a willingness to see an end to the dispute, adding it was an important semester for second-level examination students.

“It does not do anybody any good and it discriminates and does down the pupils in Leaving Cert classes in particular,” he added.

Mr Kenny said the issue of the extra hour’s supervision, which was why the schools were closed on Monday, could be resolved quickly.

Pressed on the issue of equal pay for new entrants by Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, the Taoiseach said pay for new entrants would increase by 15 per cent between August 2016 and January 2018.

Substantial

Mr Kenny added there was an opportunity for ASTI members, and particularly for new entrants, to avail of pay increases of a substantial range.

Earlier, Siptu president Jack O’Connor said the Government had funds to negotiate a better pay deal with public servants and it should do so after Christmas. He said that in view of the recent economic recovery it was to be expected that there would be a “an explosion of wage demands.”

Mr O’Connor said he believed there would be considerable public support for increased wages for young public service workers at entry levels.

On Tuesday, the ASTI said some 6,000 recently qualified teachers are on “inferior pay scales and will lose out significantly in terms of life time earnings”.

"Their introduction to their teaching career has been clouded by inferior pay and precarious contracts. Many of them earn a fraction of a fulltime salary," ASTI president Ed Byrne said. "ASTI teachers who entered the profession from 2012 earn up to 21 per cent below the common teachers' pay scale, or approximately €8,000 less per annum."

Special meeting

Public service union leaders are to hold a special meeting on Wednesday of next week in Belfast to consider their position on the Lansdowne Road pay agreement.

A number of unions sought a special meeting of the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in the wake of the Labour Court recommendation last week which proposed pay increases worth morethan €40 million for gardaí.

The officers of the public service committee met Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe on Monday. Union leaders are understood to have told the Minister the pay offer for gardaí went beyond the terms of the Lansdowne Road deal.

Union leaders have argued that the Lansdowne Road accord cannot now run until its scheduled expiry date of September 2018 in the light of what they see as greater levels of increases being given to gardai outside of the accord than provided for those who have signed up to the agreement. They are seeking an acceleration of talks with the Government on a successor deal.