ASTI:SOME OF the State's most exclusive private fee-paying schools are not paying their teachers the full Department of Education and Science salary rates, despite receiving thousands of euro a year in fees from parents, a new ASTI survey has indicated.
On the final day of the ASTI conference yesterday, Martha Goggin, a member of the union's non-permanent teachers advisory committee, described teachers who found themselves in this position as "our Gama workers".
"Some fee-paying schools are not paying the full rate to their teachers," she claimed. "It's a question of conscience for schools basically, especially when most of these schools are operated by religious [ orders]."
While both fee-paying and non- fee-paying second-level schools receive State support for teachers salaries, some opt to employ additional teachers who are then paid either wholly or partly out of the school's own funds.
According to the ASTI survey of such privately paid teachers though - almost half of whom were under 30 years of age and all of whom were qualified teachers - about one in three was not paid full Department of Education rates for all the hours they worked.
The research surveyed teachers in 44 schools, 18 of which were private fee-paying secondary schools. The remainder were drawn from the non-fee-paying voluntary secondary school and the community and comprehensive sectors. One school was a community college.
"Of those who were not paid equivalent to the DES [ department] rate for all hours worked, most stated that they were paid two-thirds of their hours at the equivalent DES rate and the remainder at a school rate," the research states.
One participant in the survey said: "I have complained to school management and have been told that the school - fee-paying - cannot afford the correct rate."
Diarmaid de Paor, deputy general secretary of the ASTI, said it was pursuing a number of cases against schools who refused to pay teachers the established rates.
Mr de Paor said it was "disgraceful" that a fee-paying school would claim that it could not afford to pay the established rates to its teachers. "I would highlight the ironies that are involved in schools charging pupils large amounts of money to attend while at the same time not paying their staff properly," he told The Irish Times.
"We find this disgraceful and would suggest that they look at their Christian ethos and consider if this is moral and ethical."
Yesterday's final public session of the ASTI conference also heard serious concerns about the situation of non-permanent teachers and those who are on a "contract of indefinite duration".
The ASTI has approximately 1,500 members who are non-permanent teachers and a further 800 who are on such contracts.They frequently suffer from a lack of security and are unable to get full-time hours, something which has significant financial implications for them, the conference heard.
Others pointed out that such teachers were frequently young and were "the future of the ASTI".