The teachers' union ASTI has voted to enter talks with the Goverment on the Croke Park agreement on the public service.
The union's central executive council today voted to enter talks with the Department of Education. It has suspended industrial action due to begin on Monday September 20th pending the outcome of the talks.
In a statement, however, it reiterated its rejection of the public service agreement, which members rejected in a ballot in May.
ASTI general secretary Pat King said the outcome of the talks will be put to a ballot.
“Under-resourced schools are being further undermined by an increase in the pupil-teacher ratio and a moratorium on middle management posts," Mr King said.
"Teachers have taken pay cuts and a worsening of their working conditions. Young teachers have lost jobs or had their hours reduced."
He said the Croke Park agreement asked teachers to sign up to a review of their contracts without detailing what such a review would encompass.
"This is the context in which ASTI members rejected the Croke Park agreement and it is the context in which the [union] will engage in talks with the Department."
Some 18,500 second-level teachers working in schools all over Ireland are represented by the union.
Under the Croke Park agreement the Government has guaranteed that there will be no further pay cuts for public service staff and that compulsory redundancies will not be introduced at least until 2014. The deal also includes a mechanism for possibly reversing part or all of the pay cuts introduced over the last year or so.
President of the country’s largest trade union, Jack O'Connor, said this week, however, that a new national agreement is the only way forward for the country.