Teachers’ ballot may result in strike days as union recommends rejection of pay and reform proposals

Secondary schools could face closures in the coming months as teachers prepare to ballot on pay and reform proposals which their union recommends be rejected.

Around 17,000 members of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (Asti), the larger of the country’s two unions for second level staff, will receive ballot papers next week with voting to close on February 1.

Rejection of the proposals, which were put together in conciliation talks before Christmas, could lead to the union activating an existing mandate for strike, which already resulted in the majority of secondary schools closing for a day last October.

Alternatively, members could withdraw from supervision and substitution duties, which had the effect of also closing schools for a day last November as plans to recruit non-teachers to fill in proved unworkable.

Asti president, Ed Byrne, said the union’s central executive committee would meet tomorrow to finalise details of the ballot and the standing committee would then determine strategy in the event of a no vote.

“There is a possibility of further strike action. The mandate is there for that. We have also said that we are very cognisant of our students, their parents, and the onset of the exam season and therefore we will take all of those things into account when we deliberate on what types of industrial action we might use,” he said. “But the idea of ‘up to and including strike action’ is still there and that’s the mandate members overwhelmingly gave in successive ballots.”

The dispute with the Department of Education is over a range of issues, chiefly the cuts to pay for teachers who entered the profession after 2011, a decision affecting 3,000 Asti members, and reform of the junior cycle which includes the replacement of part of the exams with assessment.

Also in dispute is 33 new unpaid hours per year intended for planning meetings and related activities, and the provision of supervision and substitution.

Ballots on some of the individual issues last year resulted in outcomes of roughly 70-30 against accepting the measures. As a result, Asti members have been penalised in comparison to Teachers Union of Ireland members by being excluded from pay increments and other improvements in conditions.

Mr Byrne said the department had made clear that if the conciliation proposals were not accepted in the new ballot, Asti members could expect further penalties: “At one of our last meetings with the department there were threats that if we rejected this deal, they would use as yet unseen and unknown measures against us.”

While issues to be covered by the ballot are expected to be grouped under two headings — pay and junior cycle reform — a complicating factor is the union’s understanding that both must be passed before the department will accept the outcome as positive.

The department said: “The Department of Education and Skills welcomes the decision of the Asti to give their members a say on the offer now available following recently concluded talks under the Teachers Conciliation Council. We await the outcome of their ballot.”