Teachers' union: Lack of timeline over reaching pay equality has led to potential strike action

The delay in laying a pathway towards pay equality amongst teachers has led to the possibility of further industrial action up to strikes.

This delay is undermining confidence in a resolution negotiated last April, the largest teaching union in Ireland has warned.

Union members are still waiting for details on the scope and timeline of any public service pay review agreed between unions and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform more than four months ago, according to the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO).

INTO members have taken commitments made by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and Minister for Education Joe McHugh in April in good faith, according to INTO General Secretary John Boyle.

“Members will be frustrated that they return to school this year without clarity on the nature of the proposed review, which would lay a clear pathway towards pay equalisation in the forthcoming pay talks.”

From next week, INTO members will see further pay restorations following an extensive campaign, he added.

According to the INTO, post-2010 entrants are to benefit from the removal of points four and eight from their salary scale, alongside the negotiated salary uplift of 1.75%.

There has also been a "prolonged delay" in implementing the principals' and deputy principals' award, first promised in 2007, the INTO said in a statement.

Nearly 12 years later this award is still outstanding. It’s time for the government to stop dragging its feet. Our members’ patience is running out.

Meanwhile, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) is to ballot its 18,000 members next month, for action up to and including strike action, over what it calls "pay discrimination".

The ballot will run from mid-September to early October. TUI president Seamus Lahart said the group was renewing their mandate for industrial action.

"Progress has been made in the campaign to end pay discrimination, but a gap remains," he said. "The process must now be completed and this injustice conclusively addressed."

The biggest differences in pay are between those employed before and after January 1 2011.

The union says new entrants to second-level teaching are earning 14% less on initial appointment and 10% less in the first 10 years than they would have before the introduction of cutbacks by the government.

"This two-tier pay regime is a cynical, damaging discrimination, resulting in situations where colleagues are paid at different rates for carrying out the same work," Mr Lahart added.

It must also be borne in mind that many new entrants to teaching do not secure a contract of full hours upon initial appointment, earning just a fraction of the whole-time salary.

"In addition, they are commencing their career at an average age of 26."

A survey of principals in a sixth of the country's second-level schools carried out by TUI in April found that over the previous six months, 94% of schools experienced teacher recruitment difficulties. The survey also found that 68% of schools advertised positions to which no teacher applied; while 47% of schools had unfilled teaching vacancies.

The union is now calling for the elimination of the remaining differences in the early points of scale and commencement of recognition of the six-year unpaid training period.