Major changes are likely to be made to how promotions are made in schools after the Office of the Attorney General suggested some elements may be discriminatory.
The Department of Education referred the promotions system for senior teaching jobs to the Attorney General some weeks ago after it became concerned it could contravene sections of the Employment Equality Act and other legislation.
Some school managers have postponed interviews for the responsibility posts until matters are clarified. They involve extra pay for teachers and are regarded as an important way of rewarding those with good service.
The Attorney General's advice is to form the basis of at least one revised circular altering the promotions system. The Department will meet the education partners next Wednesday. The issue arose yesterday at the annual conference of the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA) in Tralee, Co Kerry, where delegates were told all education partners should work to ensure promotions systems were fair and seen to be fair.
The IVEA represents the 33 vocational education committees and is very influential. The changes are likely to allow part-time teachers count their years of service for the purposes of seniority, which is used widely in the promotions systems in secondary schools, and less in vocational schools.
One proposal is that 300 hours a year or more would be a "working threshold", to be considered as a full year in the normal way. However some sources said this might be too prescriptive.
It is understood the Attorney General considers the use of seniority as a major criterion for deciding on posts of responsibility may also be discriminatory. Other legal sources have said female teachers could argue that they are disadvantaged by such a weighting towards seniority, as considerably more men are senior teachers than women.
The IVEA conference heard that VEC representatives received only about £23 for taking part in interviews, while others often received up to £100. The conference voted to withdraw co-operation from interview boards within six months unless there was "a common payment for all members of such interview boards".