'We're here to work. That's what we want to do'

“We’re presenting for work as normal,” said Irish teacher Eoghain O’Brien outside the closed doors of Mount Carmel secondary school in Dublin city yesterday.

“It’s a message really to the Government that we’re available to work to do the job we’re paid to do.”

Mr O’Brien, an Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) union rep, was among a huddle of teachers who gathered on a cold and bright morning in the school car park on King’s Inns Street.

“We’re here to work today. That’s what we want to do,” says another teacher who did not want to be named. “It’s just that there’s no one to supervise the kids. We’re not allowed into the building and we won’t be in the building today.”

Monday was the first day of industrial action by the ASTI which sees members withdrawing supervision and substitution duties. On Tuesday, teachers will hold a strike over pay.

Supervision and substitution

Supervision and substitution, or “S&S duties” as most teachers refer to them, involve keeping an eye on pupils in the school corridors, making sure they are behaving and going to class on time as well as filling in for any teacher who might be out sick.

“We did it for free under the Haddington Road agreement and under that agreement we were told we would be paid €796 into our point on our salary scale in September,” said Mr O’Brien. “The Government decided not to do that so they decided not to pay us for the work we had done, so we’re not going to do the duties anymore.

“It’s like if you had a cleaner into your house and you said you’re going to pay them to clean your house weekly and you stop paying them and then expect them to turn up to your house next week. They’re not going to turn up, it’s as simple as that.”

He said there is now a real concern schools will remain closed indefinitely unless some solution is found.

Lansdowne Road

Teachers at O’Connell School in Drumcondra said they shared his concern. “If the Minister just paid us for doing the S&S and let everything else go into negotiation, we could carry on in school and the negotiations would go on,” said Michael Kilbride, a home liaison teacher. “But the money is there in the budget and they won’t pay us for the doing the S&S. They want to force us into the Lansdowne Road agreement.”

Mr Kilbride said there are about 13 non-ASTI members of staff at the school who would be in a position to perform S&S duties and he was “very disappointed” management were unable to come up with a way to keep the school open.