The Teachers Union of Ireland says it has been inundated with complaints from teachers about long delays in receiving a wide range of payments agreed last March under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW). Among the agreed payments which the Department of Education has not yet implemented are early-retirement payments, qualifications payments and long-service allowances, the TUI general secretary, Mr Jim Dorney, said yesterday.
The Department has not even issued authorising circulars for other PCW provisions agreed in March, he said.
These include permanent posts for temporary teachers working in the highly successful Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) for the long-term unemployed, and in Traveller Training Centres; 28 per cent increases in allowances for holders of posts of responsibility; payment of fees for teachers taking courses; and pensions for part-time teachers.
Yesterday the union called off a half-day strike by its members in the City of Dublin VEC after it received a draft circular from the Department on giving temporary VTOS teachers permanent status.
The majority of VTOS teachers are still on temporary contracts and the union is demanding that 95 per cent of them be made permanent.
Expressing his members' "outrage" at the delays, Mr Dorney said the TUI was considering industrial action to have the agreement implemented immediately.