GOVERNMENT negotiators have made a major concession in talks with the teacher unions by offering to drop a controversial demand for teachers to put in an extra 15 hours of non teaching work annually.
The creation of new permanent teaching posts have also been proposed in the continuing talks on a new deal on pay and conditions for the State's 40,000 teachers. It is believed the Government side is ready to agree that up to 95 per cent of teaching posts in vocational schools be made permanent.
This would meet one of the main demands of the Teachers' Union of Ireland, which is concerned about growing casualisation. In many VECs, the proportion of permanent teachers has fallen below 80 per cent as part time and temporary staff are appointed to meet the expansion of adult and traveller education.
The talks between Government officials and the three teacher unions continued yesterday, but no progress was reported on the main outstanding issues. These are the terms of an early retirement deal and proposals to drop seniority as the main criterion for promotion in secondary schools.
The Government has also told the Irish National Teachers' Organisation that it will implement the early retirement pro visions of its original offer this year, ahead of agreement with the two second level unions which rejected the offer last spring.
Agreement on this was reached late on Wednesday, just before the ICTU conference on entering a new national pay agreement. As a result, the INTO voted in favour of entering negotiations on a new agreement.
The arrangement has annoyed the second level unions.
An INTO spokeswoman said yesterday the arrangement would not require the agreement of the other unions under conciliation and arbitration. Instead, it could be introduced by statutory order.
