Teachers on strike: Education system risks total shutdown, warns TDs
More than 500 of the country’s 735 second-level schools remained closed yesterday as the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) members held the first of seven strikes in a bid to fully restore pay for newly qualified teachers.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he is “very disappointed” at schools being closed on foot of “unnecessary action”by the ASTI.
He said the action is deeply regrettable and upsetting which he said is causing huge inconvenience to parents throughout the country.
Earlier, the Dáil heard that the country is facing “the complete and utter shutdown” of the education system next month unless an immediate solution is found to the school strikes crisis. Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary said the Government’s response to the “reasonable” ASTI pay parity request has been a “shambles”.
But as teachers went ahead with strike action, Mr Bruton said he is “very disappointed” that the dispute has not been resolved.
“I feel disappointed for students and parents; parents discommoded in their work but students more particularly. It’s a tense time, people are preparing for an important year in their career and this disrupts their learning.”
He said his department will continue to engage with the ASTI in a bid to come up with a solution and avoid the industrial action from November 7, when ASTI members will also withdraw from supervision and substitution. But he could not give an end point for these talks, if agreement is not reached.
“We have made huge strides in respect of restoring equality of treatment for young teachers, we have closed the gap by virtually three-quarters at this stage.”
The minister said that over the next two years, newly qualified teachers will receive up to a 22% pay increase bringing pay up to €37,700 for a teacher recruited last year.
“We are well on the way to do that, but we cannot commit to an individual union, a sectoral deal for one union who has decided to not negotiate around these issues but to unilaterally withdraw from commitments that every teacher is committed to as part of their core duties.”
He said if the withdrawal from supervision and substitution from November 7 results in schools closing then teachers will be docked pay.
“Where there is withdrawal of supervision and the school remains open then the industrial action hasn’t resulted in the withdrawal of labour and they will continue to work and continue to get paid. But where industrial action has resulted in the closure of the school that will be different,” Mr Bruton said.
Fianna Fáil’s education spokesman, Thomas Byrne, said the minister is “hardening his position at a time when we should be moving towards de-escalation”.
In the Dáil, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin outlined the seriousness of the situation as they repeatedly warned that action is needed now to address the stand-off.
Mr Calleary said the Government is “sleep walking” on the issue because “for all your talk of negotiations, schools are still on strike today” and no pay guarantees have been given to teachers. But warning that an “even worse” situation is on the horizon, he said “the country is facing the complete and utter shutdown of the education system” within weeks over concerns that hundreds of schools may be unable to re-open if ASTI action continues.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said the demands of teachers and gardaí are not insurmountable, and said the Government sounds like “a broken down record” on the issue. She said there is no roadmap and “you seem to have walked us into a cul-de-sac” of a public pay stand-off that will not be resolved.
In response, Tánaiste and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald repeated her view that a “pathway” is available to address the strike.
“You’re talking about cul-de-sacs. I’m saying there are offers on the table,” she said, adding it “would not be fair” on other public servants and taxpayers for a deal to be struck with one group to the detriment of others.
President flies the kite and gets it tangled up
The presidency of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) rotates on a yearly basis but Ed Byrne’s turn to lead was known about since he was elected vice-president in early 2015.
When handed the chain of office by Cork-based Máire Ní Chiarba in August, he knew from many years on the union’s standing committee of the challenges facing him during his term.
A teacher of geography and business studies at Coláiste Choilm in Swords, Co Dublin, he has managed to make quite a coherent argument in public of ASTI’s position on the various issues on which industrial action was recently voted by its 17,500 members.
But an ability to slip from a strict strategy was evident in the “flying of a kite”, in his own words, at the picket line yesterday.
He spoke to the media about the possibility of a temporary suspension of the planned withdrawal from supervision and substitution if the Department of Education were to grant the same fast-track to secure positions for recently qualified teachers which are already available to Teachers’ Union of Ireland members.
While the idea sounds reasonable in principle, the Government is unlikely to grant a permanent concession for a temporary moderation of the ASTI action.
And with the supervision and substitution withdrawal linked to a different pay issue to the campaign for younger teachers — on which the seven one-day strikes are being held — his confusion of the two matters shows the difficulties facing elected officers of any union when placed in the spotlight.
Christie’s baptism of fire is far from over just yet
Kieran Christie has had quite the baptism of fire since taking over as ASTI’s general secretary in January.
Succeeding long-serving official Pat King, he assumed the effective chief executive role of the union at a time when it was already on industrial action over junior cycle reform and in uncertain territory over its relatively isolated position in the public sector — being not signed up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
What he brings to the job from a long career as a teacher of construction, woodwork, and communication design and graphics in Sligo may be counter-balanced by a lack of hard experience as a full-time official.
Mr Christie has served on ASTI’s standing committee as a regional representative, and has also held the important role of national organiser. But a longer history of being “inside the room” in past talks with Department of Education officials and other groups would be more ideal for the union, given the general secretary’s role in helping to guide and advise the union’s elected officers on strategy.
As they try to manage an ambitious and complicated campaign, and are currently engaged in several industrial actions on curriculum, pay, and conditions, he will have his work cut out steering the organisation in the weeks and months ahead through a path that could make or break its standing — in the views of members and of the public.
INTO and TUI protest pay inequality at the Dáil
Members of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation and Teachers’ Union of Ireland protested against pay inequality for entrants to the profession since 2011 at the Dáil yesterday — after completing their day at school.
Last month, both unions finalised a deal with the Department of Education to see some restoration of pay cuts for newly-qualified teachers, even though TUI members rejected the Lansdowne Road Agreement a year ago,
With ASTI trying to progress the issue through strikes, the other two teacher unions are keen to show they are continuing to press for equal pay scales for all in the profession. As older teachers retire and schools hire new staff to match rising enrolments, teachers on lower post-2011 pay scales make up an increasing proportion of union membership every year, meaning the issue will become a bigger one for their leaders — and for Government.
What’s available to teachers
While some of the points made by Education Minister Richard Bruton about the detail of what is on the table are questioned by teachers, the following are measures available to ASTI members in talks with his officials.
The union did not agree to accept the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) last year.
The wording below is an edited version of information supplied by the Department of Education:
Under the proposed deal for new entrant teachers which is being implemented for the INTO and the TUI, and which is potentially on offer to the ASTI:
- The starting pay for new entrant members will increase by 15% between August 31, 2016 and January 1, 2018 (from €31,009 to €35,602).
- An individual member recruited since September 1, 2015 will see a 22% increase in their pay between August 31, 2016 and January 1, 2018 (from €31,009 to €37,723).
The benefits of the LRA are not just for new teachers. Teachers with longer service will benefit too. For example, a teacher with 11 years’ service who is co-operating with the LRA will see her/his pay rise 9% from August 2016 to January 2018— from €45,222 to €49,436. This includes salary increases worth 5.7%, rising to a 9% increase when the payment of salary increment is factored in.
In terms of career earnings, these deals which have been done restore approximately three quarters of the reductions for new entrants put in place since 2011.
In addition to the agreed improvement in pay for new teachers, the following benefits apply to teachers covered by the LRA:
- Avoiding a two-year increment freeze;
- Addition of the supervision and substitution allowance of €1,592 into the teacher pay scale;
- The Ward Report measures and a revised sequence for filling posts which enable fixed-term and part-time teachers to gain permanent, full-time jobs more easily and quickly than before;
- Continued alleviation of the FEMPI Act pay reductions;
- An increase in the quantum of the Croke Park hours that can be worked on other than a whole-school basis;
- A review of the usage of the Croke Park hours;
- Protection against compulsory redundancy.
The ASTI’s decision in July to withdraw from carrying out the Croke Park Hours — 33 hours per year, agreed to allow schools to carry out activities like school planning meetings and parent-teacher meetings — had the effect of repudiating the LRA and precipitating the current dispute.
ASTI’s decision to withdraw from the Croke Park hours and thereby repudiate the LRA resulted in the department withdrawing from ASTI members the benefits of the LRA, including additional payment for supervision and substitution — supervising breaktimes, lunchtimes etc.
The minister has indicated previously that if the ASTI suspends its directive to not work the Croke Park Hours, then his department would immediately make available the benefits of the LRA, including payment for supervision and substitution duties.
The Croke Park hours are part of wider productivity measures introduced under the LRA that require all public servants to work additional time for no additional payment.
Across the public services — education, health, local authorities, civil service etc — the additional time being provided represents about 450,000 additional hours per annum or the equivalent of between 12,000 and 13,000 public service posts. That is a serious productivity benefit for the exchequer. Replacing those hours would cost hundreds of millions of euro.
Before the Croke Park hours were introduced, these activities ate into tuition time. This meant that schools closed for full days or half days in order to carry them out, causing interruption to tuition and significant inconvenience for parents, as well as childcare costs — particularly for primary parents.
In response to teacher concerns regarding the use of the Croke Park hours, the department agreed with TUI and INTO to carry out a review of their usage.
This review, which also involves the school management bodies, began earlier this month.
The review provides for an up-front increase in the quantum of time allowed for planning and development work on other than a whole-school basis.
The original Croke Park Agreement provided that all Croke Park hours (36 for primary and 33 for post- primary annually) would be worked on a whole-school basis.
The Haddington Road Agreement provided that up to five of the hours could be worked on a less than whole-school basis (eg small groups of subject teachers). The recent agreement increases this maximum to eight hours in September 2016 and 10 hours in September 2017.
