Rising costs and pay scales dominate teacher conferences

Delegates at the ASTI 100th Annual Convention at the Clayton Silver Springs Hotel, Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

Pay scales, public sector pay agreements, and the rising cost of petrol dominated agendas on the first day of Easter teachers’ union congresses.

The pandemic may have offered some reprieve from many of the teaching unions’ longstanding industrial relation campaigns, as attention diverted to vaccine rollouts and classroom health and safety, but the spiralling cost of living has firmly brought them back into focus.

Inflation, at its highest in the last 20 years, is now exacerbating the issue of different pay scales offered to teachers — those who qualified after 2011 are paid at a different rate to their colleagues. This was the view firmly expressed at the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) annual conference in Cork City.

Young teachers are spending their 20s on hold due to a banking crash that happened when they were teenagers, Christopher Davey of the Carlow ASTI Central Executive Committee told delegates. 

Industrial action

He brought to the floor a motion “with a view” to undertaking industrial action up to and including strike, unless a number of pay issues were resolved. This included the elimination of the post-2011 pay scale, and a pay rise for teachers to counter increasing costs of living. 

"When I sat the Leaving Cert in 2009, how could anyone envisage that the banking crisis that was caused by irresponsible actions when I was a teenager would have me lose tens of thousands of euros in potential earnings.” 

Seconding the motion, Vanessa Byrne told delegates that young post-primary teachers are emigrating to the United Arab Emirates in a bid to recoup the costs of pursuing their studies. The motion was debated but was referred back to the ASTI standing committee to allow for talks to continue on the successor to ‘Building Momentum’.

Michael Gillespie, Teachers Union of Ireland general secretary, told hundreds of teachers gathered in Wexford the profession had been hit by increasing workload following the pandemic, inflation, and changes to the junior and senior cycle. It has resulted in teachers being "driven from the profession". 

Mr Gillespie noted energy, fuel, and food costs have all increased "very steeply" over the last several months. 

"For example, teachers who moved outside the M50 in search of affordable homes or affordable rents now find the cost of fuel prohibitive in making the necessary daily commute to work. It is costing them a lot to go to work." 

Pay increase

In Killarney, Norma Foley told primary school teachers on Tuesday morning there was no timeline for when teachers can expect to see an increase in their pay packets, but the Government was "strongly aware" of the cost of living challenge. 

She “looks forward to discussion and engagement around the table” with teachers campaigning for pay increases. More than €2bn has already been made available for a variety of different measures to tackle the rising cost of living, which are “quite comprehensive”.

Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Michael McGrath is “happy to engage” with public sector unions to address the issues caused by inflation.  

Ms Foley could not give a specific figure as to how much a pay increase for teachers would cost, or when they could expect to see a pay increase, but she said preliminary discussions had begun.