Renewed disruption in schools may have been averted with a new deal on supervision/substitution agreed by two of the three teacher unions and the Department of Education last night.
The two unions, the TUI and the INTO, are expected to recommend the deal to their members, and it has a good chance of being carried in a ballot, sources suggested.
Agreement in the talks, chaired by Mr Tom Pomphrett, was reached yesterday after several weeks of intensive negotiations. Mr Pomphrett said he was proposing the package strictly on the basis of it being accepted by both sides.
While teachers are still threatening industrial action over benchmarking, a deal that solves the supervision problem would represent a significant advance.
The three elements in the package are:
An hourly rate of €37 for supervision/substitution from September 2002. This compares with an earlier offer of €34 per hour.
Agreement in principle that supervision/substitution payments be made pensionable. Talks will take place in the summer with a view to implementing it from September.
Payment will be made to teachers who have been doing supervision/substitution for the past few months unpaid. This could mean almost €1,300 for individual teachers.
The ASTI has declined to enter talks on supervision and its members are no longer doing such work.
However if members start doing supervision again, the money would be on offer to them as well, sources said.
While getting the package passed in a ballot could be difficult, union leaders said they would not be recommending it if there was not a strong chance of it being passed.
The INTO has already voted in favour of the €34-per-hour rate, so getting members to endorse the improved deal should be relatively easy.
The TUI is different, but many of its more radical members are now on the executive and yesterday they endorsed the deal.
As with the €34 offer, the supervision/substitution work will remain voluntary. In ASTI schools, at this stage, it appears non-teachers will provide the service.
The Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA), the national body for the VEC sector, welcomed the decision by the TUI to recommend the package.
Its head, Mr Michael Moriarty, said: "Negotiations have been lengthy and fraught with difficulties.
"At this critical time in the school calendar, IVEA is delighted and relieved that TUI has opted to recommend the Department's renewed offer of payment.
"IVEA is hopeful that this significant decision will mark the first step in the path to restoring the pivotal partnership among all the education partners that is so essential to the success of the sector," he added.