Thousands of parents and pupils will be affected from Monday as the public service work-to-rule over a new national pay deal is extended to schools.
More than 70,000 members of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) will join the wider work-to-rule that started in other sectors on Wednesday, taking the total number of staff involved to about 250,000.
More than 3,300 primary schools will be affected by action taken by 50,000 members of the INTO who will work their core hours but not provide supervision before or after school, leaving many working parents of young schoolchildren with challenges.
The union has told its members that insurance companies have advised schools that, where no alternative cover can be arranged, access to schools and their grounds should be provided only during the school’s core hours. These hours include lunchtime and other breaks.
READ MORE
Extracurricular activities such as sports will continue as normal but not parent-teacher meetings, which will be scheduled during school hours.
In a message to its members on Friday, the INTO said it was “unlikely”, for the duration of the dispute, pupils would be on school premises outside of school hours. The dispute is to continue after Monday and will include a one-day strike across the public service on Wednesday, October 14th, that is likely to close virtually every school in the country. Another is expected on the 21st.
Asked about the impact of the action, INTO general secretary John Boyle said on RTÉ radio over the weekend “people would have to get used to it” as, he said, teachers had seen their real wages reduced in recent years and were entitled to pursue a new deal that took this into account.
The two sides continue to publicly contest what is and isn’t a “precondition” with Government Ministers saying again over the weekend it will enter talks immediately as long as there are none while the union side denies its position that ground lost in recent years must be dealt with up front is a precondition.
On Sunday, Helen McEntee told RTÉ Radio her hope, and that of Jack Chambers, is that “these talks can happen as quickly as possible because we don’t want to see this impacting people, particularly school going students”.
Special needs assistants (SNA) who are members of Fórsa are already working-to-rule while about 550 secondary schools where the ASTI has members are also to be affected by the action from Monday.
The ASTI restrictions on normal working are similar but include a prohibition on responding to telephone or email communications. The impact on parents is unlikely to be as acutely felt, however, given the ages of the children.
The country’s third union in the sector, the Teachers Union of Ireland, will join the action next Monday.
The Department of Education said it was regrettable the unions had withdrawn from preliminary talks and said a new agreement could only be reached when the tqo sides engaged again. “The department is liaising with the relevant school management bodies to ensure schools are kept informed of developments,” it said.
