Unions for teachers and nurses suspend ballots on industrial action to consider pay offer

Unions representing teachers and nurses have suspended planned ballots on industrial action to consider the latest public sector pay offer.

Unions are expected to take up to five weeks to consult members over the Government’s revised 6.5 per cent pay offer before taking a collective decision on whether to accept it or reject the package.

Teachers’ union sources said it was too early to gauge the feelings of the wider membership given that most are focused on reopening schools and returning to the classroom this week. “We should be better able to measure the temperature of the wider membership next week when we begin to digest it all,” said one senior union official.

The reaction from more hardline union activists on social media, meanwhile, was generally negative towards the new offer.

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An imminent move to restore the HDip allowance to thousands of secondary teachers is seen by some as an attempt to help win over the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI).

This postgraduate masters in education allowance – formerly the HDip allowance – is worth about €1,314 to teachers appointed after 2012. Union sources say this is likely to be formally restored shortly.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), the largest teachers’ union, said its central executive committee would consider the new pay offer in full and make decisions on how the membership would be balloted on the proposals. “In light of the amended pay offer negotiated by officers of the Ictu public services committee, the union has decided to suspend the planned ballot for industrial action,” the INTO said, in a statement.

Similarly, the TUI and ASTI are also meeting to decide on the next steps.

ASTI confirmed that the public sector pay ballot on industrial action due in September has been suspended and its 180-member central executive council would meet to consider the pay proposals and developments soon.

The TUI said its executive committee would meet to discuss the pay proposal and any updates would be communicated shortly.

Meanwhile, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) held a meeting of its executive council on Tuesday, and the union said it had decided to suspend balloting for industrial action. INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said there would l be a meeting on Wednesday “to further consider the offer that was brokered and decide how this issue will be put before members in terms of a ballot”.

The revised Government offer includes three phases of pay increases. The first is a 3 per cent increase this year, backdated to February 2nd this year. The second is a 2 per cent increase from March 1st, 2023, while the third is another 1.5 per cent increase – or a minimum of €750 – from October 1st next year.

The 6.5 per cent is in addition to the 2 per cent increases for most public sector workers under the existing Building Momentum deal, with half of this already in place and the second 1 per cent – or €500 which ever is greater – to kick in next October 1st.

In a statement, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) said the package was worth 8 per cent to a worker earning €25,000 a year and 7 per cent to a person on €37,500 a year.

Ictu’s public services committee has decided that individual unions should consult members on the package in advance of a collective decision on whether to accept or reject the package.

Kevin Callinan, Ictu president, said he believed the outcome was the best that could currently be achieved through negotiations.

The collective decision will take place at a meeting on Friday, October 7th, where voting will be weighted to reflect the number of public servants that each union represents.