Teachers risk loss of pay hikes over school report move

PRIMARY teachers risk losing pay increases after voting to ban cooperation with school inspectors in protest at Education Minister Mary Hanafin’s decision to publish their reports.

In what may be the first real test of the minister’s industrial relations mettle, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation’s 27,000 members risk the possible loss of the final 2.5% instalment of salary increases under Sustaining Progress, due on June 1.

The increases, worth at least €1,250 a year to a teacher with 15 years’ service, could be blocked if the dispute is deemed to breach the wage agreement.