The three teachers unions are due this week to set out plans for strike action if a new pay review fails to deliver a substantial salary increase for their 50,000 members.
Delegates from the INTO, the TUI and the ASTI - gathering for their annual conferences - are due to draw up contingency plans for industrial action in the autumn, to be implemented if the benchmarking review disappoints members.
According to this morning's Irish Times, indications from education sources suggest teachers could gain an increase of over 10 per cent over and above the current PPF. But with the benchmarking body still deliberating, this is a provisional estimate.
More than 900 delegates are expected at the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) conference which opens in Limerick this afternoon and will continue over the next four days.
Aside from considering its 30 per cent pay claim, the conference will see the departure of the union’s general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole. After 10 years at the helm, he will be succeeded by Mr John Carr who is due to outline the union's determination to press ahead with industrial action if its pay objectives are not met.
Meanwhile today's ASTI conference will be addressed by its former general secretary, Mr Kieran Mulvey, now the chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission. He is expected to call for an end to the internal feuding in the ASTI.
The ASTI conference will also debate two contentious motions: one on whether the union will rejoin ICTU and the other on whether it should re-enter talks on supervision/substitution with the Minister for Education, Dr Woods.
Dr Woods is due to visit all three conferences and is likely to face a hostile reception from the ASTI. Last year delegates walked out when he addressed its conference in Galway.