Thousands of second-level teachers hired since 2012 are getting an allowance worth €1,314 a year restored and backdated to February this year.
The postgraduate masters in education allowance — formerly known as the HDip allowance — was removed for those appointed since February 1st 2012 under austerity-era public spending cuts.
It is now being restored to these teachers at second level and in further education settings under a sectoral bargaining process following agreement between teachers’ unions and the Department of Education.
Sectoral bargaining gave unions the flexibility to use a fund equivalent to 1 per cent of basic pay to resolve outstanding pay-related issues.
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A circular letter authorising payment is being issued to second level schools by the department. The annual cost of restoring the allowance is estimated to be in the region of €15 million.
The move significantly narrows the two-tier pay gap between teachers hired since 2012 and their longer-serving colleagues, which has been a source of long-standing tension between unions and the Government.
The payment comes as public sector unions consider the latest public sector pay offer. Unions are due 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 next month.
Minister for Education Norma Foley welcomed agreement on use of the sectoral bargaining fund to restore the value of the allowance for “new entrant” post-primary teachers.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) said the move was long overdue.
Both unions said the decision to axe the allowance in the first place was a “regressive development” that proved to be the genesis of a teacher recruitment and retention problem that is now at “crisis levels” in second-level schools.
They said second-level teachers who are members of the TUI and ASTI sacrificed a general 1 per cent pay increase payable on February 1st , 2022, under existing public sector pay deal so that the equivalent funding would allow reinstatement of the value of the allowance for teachers appointed since February 2012.
TUI president Liz Farrell said: “We had vigorously demanded the urgent payment of the value of this allowance, which had been agreed several months ago. Given the cost-of-living crisis, focus must now turn to providing teachers with secure jobs of full hours in order to make teaching a viable and sustainable career.”
ASTI president Miriam Duggan added: “It brings equal pay a step closer for this cohort of teachers who have suffered this injustice for almost a decade. It is regrettable that teachers have had to resolve this issue by taking money out of their own pockets.”
