Schools urged to postpone meetings to limit industrial disruption

Hundreds of schools set to be hit with industrial action by teachers have been told they should postpone meetings already rescheduled as a result so the impact on students can be reduced.

The recommendation has come from the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which represents the boards of the 370 schools staffed entirely by Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) members who are taking action after rejecting the Haddington Road public sector pay agreement last week.

From Wednesday, they are under union orders not to attend planning, staff, or parent-teacher meetings after school. These had been held outside class time for a number of years under the Croke Park Agreement.

Since the directives from ASTI leaders on Monday, some schools had moved planned meetings back into class time. However, a JMB bulletin has advised schools to prioritise the maintenance of teaching time while the industrial action is taking place.

“To this end, the JMB recommends that meetings normally scheduled outside tuition time on should not be re-scheduled to take place within normal tuition time. Such meetings already scheduled should therefore be postponed [for the time being],” it said.

JMB staff will meet with principals and chairpersons of each school over the next two weeks to assess the impact of the dispute.

Meanwhile, the potential for inter-union tensions should be eased by a department commitment yesterday to issue a circular letter next week that will allow Teachers’ Union of Ireland members receive the benefits of Haddington Road, which they narrowly accepted in last week’s ballot.

While it means pay cuts to those earning over €65,000 and freezes on subsequent increments, they will see benefits not now available to ASTI members that include back-payment of increments due this year and clawback of recent pay cuts to those who started teaching since 2011, worth up to €2,500 a year immediately to those staff.

However, uncertainty remains over how the department or education and training boards can distinguish union affiliation at around 130 dual-union schools, as data protection law prevents the use of information held for deduction of union subscriptions through payroll.