ASTI executive urges rejection of deal aimed at averting strikes

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) is to urge its 17,000 members to reject new proposals aimed at averting further school closures in a forthcoming ballot.

ASTI president Ed Byrne said the union’s central executive, which met on Saturday in Dublin, did not consider the settlement proposals put forward to be “anything to hang your hat on”.

However, industrial action will continue to be suspended pending the forthcoming ballot which is expected to take place in January.

Hundreds of secondary schools were affected recently when ASTI members staged several days of industrial action as part of disputes over lower pay for recently-recruited teachers and financial penalties imposed by the Government on the union for “repudiating” the Lansdowne Road agreement.

Settlement proposals were drawn up earlier this week after three weeks of talks with the Department of Education, which were chaired by the Teachers’ Conciliation Council.

Speaking after the meeting of the union’s central executive, Mr Byrne said there was nothing in the new proposals in relation to pay for new entrants and that pay inequality would continue.

He said the union also had fundamental problems with planned reforms to the Junior Certificate and that these persisted.

“The department wanted to tie these up in one agreement but our members on the central executive council did not think that was the right thing to do.”

Strikes

Mr Byrne said a series of one-day strikes and a withdrawal from supervision and substitution duties - which saw hundreds of schools closed for three days in October and November- remained “in abeyance “.

However, he said these measures could be reactivated or that action in another form may be instigated in the future.

“That decision will be talked through in December and into January when the ballot is likely to take place,” he said. “The result of the ballot will decide on exactly what would happen in relation to reactivation.”

He said members would have full information before they voted on what would happen in relation to strikes or other industrial action if they rejected the settlement proposals.

The meeting of the union’s central executive on Saturday did consider proposals to dismiss the settlement proposals out of hand without putting them to a ballot of members, but this was rejected by 71 votes to 58.

A two thirds majority would have been needed to reject the settlement proposals without a ballot of members.