Sir, - According to your Education Correspondent (The Irish Times, February 6th) the ASTI has made its case that members' salaries have fallen behind by some 30 per cent, but it would have helped if it had said exactly what teachers were going to do for that 30 per cent. With respect, your correspondent misses the point.
Firstly, if I am offered 30 per cent more money for 30 per cent more work, then I am being offered the same inadequate rate of pay as I have right now. Secondly, the ASTI has always said that what it is seeking is reward for productivity already conceded.
You may say that, in the real world of industrial negotiation, it is naive to seek compensation for past productivity, but when Junior Finance Minister Martin Cullen was asked to justify the large increases awarded to politicians he said that they were for all the extra work they had taken on by accepting the committee system, etc. I don't know about you, but that sure sounds like compensation for past productivity to me. - Yours, etc.,
Brendan Casserly, Abbeybridge, Waterfall, Cork.