In a move which could have serious implications for this summer's exams, secondary teachers are unlikely to be offered a down-payment by the Labour Court when it issues its recommendations tomorrow.
The court's recommendation on the dispute is likely to accept that secondary teachers have a good case for a significant pay increase, but The Irish Times has learned it will stop short of offering an "upfront" payment.
This has been demanded by many hardliners in the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI), which is promising to continue its five-month dispute in pursuit of a 30 per cent pay claim.
According to education sources, the court is likely to recognise the merits of the case for a significant pay rise, but will reject the down-payment option. It will, however, broadly accept the view that teachers' pay has fallen significantly behind other graduates.
The ASTI maintains other graduates are paid an average of £8,000 per year more. The court will suggest a process should be established to allow the union pursue this issue.
But the key question is whether it insists this should be done through the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness or some kind of parallel process. Alone among the teaching unions, the ASTI withdrew from the PPF last year.
The court will also point to the potential of the bench marking pay review which the other teaching unions - the INTO and the TUI - are using to press their claims for pay increases of up to 34 per cent.
The proposals will be considered by a meeting of ASTI's 180-member central executive commitee on Saturday. The committee has two options: it can put the package out to a ballot of its 17,000 members or it can reject the proposal, provided two thirds of the committee agree.
The ASTI ban on exam work, which began last Monday, has already disrupted preparations for the oral/practicals, which begin on March 26th.
The union plans to resume regional strikes next week if the proposals do not meet its requirements. Regional strikes are planned for March 13th, 14th and 15th with national strikes scheduled for March 21st, 28th, 29th and April 3rd, 4th and 5th. This timetable will be discussed further tomorrow by the ASTI's standing committee.
Meanwhile the Teachers' Union of Ireland is to ask the Government for a major new deal for teachers in post-Leaving Cert colleges. The union says these teachers should have higher pay than second-level teachers.
In its submission to the benchmarking body it wants these teachers to be given a substantial pay rise to recognise that they are effectively teaching third-level students.