Second-level teachers are to seek to have all parent-teacher meetings held within normal school hours, despite having signed up to an agreement to attend such meetings in their own time.
In a controversial move, delegates at the ASTI's annual convention, who voted on Tuesday to seek additional pay increases through a renegotiation of the pay element of the current national partnership deal, Towards 2016, yesterday passed a motion backing the new measure.
Parents representatives have expressed disappointment at yesterday's motion, voted on in a private session, which calls on the union to "renegotiate the holding of parent-teacher meetings so that such meetings take place within normal school time". Under an agreement negotiated as part of the previous Sustaining Progress national partnership deal, ASTI members received pay increases partly in return for a commitment to attend three parent-teacher meetings a year outside of normal school hours.
The arrangement, introduced in the 2004/2005 academic year, requires them to remain on school premises until 6.45pm. In practice, most teachers see remaining parents on an informal basis after this time.
But the motion, tabled by three Dublin-based branches and supported by the overwhelming majority of delegates yesterday afternoon, means the union is now mandated to revisit this deal.
One source who attended yesterday's meeting told The Irish Timesthat many parents have been telling schools that they prefer a system whereby they asked for time off work to attend parent-teacher meetings, rather than the current arrangement.
But Barbara Johnston, spokeswoman for the Catholic Secondary School Parents Association, said teachers should be seeking to increase rather than to decrease the teaching hours which school pupils receive.
She said that while the current agreement did not suit either teachers or parents - her association wants to see meetings held outside of normal working hours, for example later in the evening or at weekends - Ireland already has one of the shortest school days in Europe.
"Between things like staff training days and parent-teacher meetings, our kids lose a load of hours," Ms Johnston said. "I'm disappointed, I see it as a move backwards. To think that the [ extra] time we gave to kids, we're going to be taking back again is disappointing. I think if they do renegotiate the agreement, we as parents want to be included."
Reacting to the news a spokeswoman for the Department of Education pointed out that there is an agreement in place which, she said, is working for teachers and parents alike and which had been agreed under the terms of Sustaining Progress.
Yesterday's private afternoon meeting also adopted a school discipline motion which calls on the Department of Education to provide extra resources for "behavioural support" classrooms for problem pupils.
This comes amid increasing concern at the ongoing discipline crisis at second level, and would see such pupils provided with time away from the classroom. The conference had heard that second-level teachers are subject to bullying by a range of individuals, including their pupils.
Separately, delegates supported another motion which will allow some 17,000 members of the ASTI to vote by post in future on issues such as the union's participation in national pay deals.
It will increase participation by removing a previous requirement for teachers to travel to branch meetings to cast their ballot.