Teachers angry at €2,500 pay deal for principals
Although no payment has been offered to principals for the work during the last three months of term, it is reported that they are in line for a 2,500 euro windfall for organising the contingency plan since March.
The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), most of whose members are also affiliated to the ASTI or TUI, sought recompense for the extra workload associated with the plan in most secondary schools.
But senior union officials have expressed anger that the principals may have gone outside the normal channels of negotiation.
One top teachers’ representative said any payment to teachers, including principals, must be negotiated through the Teachers’ Conciliation Council, where the main teacher unions represent staff.
“The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals is not a negotiating body, so we would be quite miffed if we thought they were getting a payment without going through the conciliation council,” the source said.
“If the department sought to pay the principals outside that body, unions would be very angry,” the source added.
The department has denied any payment has been agreed, but a spokesperson said it is examining the possibility.
NAPD president Gerard Looney said the request for payment was not made by his association, but rather by the school management organisations on their behalf.
“We have been constantly making the point to them that we were doing this extra work for no extra payment. It would be disappointing if unions did not support a claim where members had done extra work,” he said.
It has also emerged that the use of non-teaching staff to supervise secondary school classes last term had many benefits, despite the extra burdens on principals.
Many principals from the 232 schools which responded to a survey for the NAPD said it meant they did not have to beg teachers to sit in on classes like they normally would.
One respondent’s comments summarised the views of the vast majority, almost one-third of whom spent an additional six to 10 hours a week managing the contingency plan.
“The availability of supervision pre-school start-up time and post-school ending time was a great bonus to the school and filled a gap that for a long time was only managed by the principal and deputy principal,” he said.
The fact that they had control over the supervisors ensured that classes would be supervised without having to beg staff to do it, said another principal.
The research, conducted by Dr Valerie Richardson from UCD’s department of social policy and social work, also stressed many of the added duties taken on by principals and their deputies.
It highlighted their physical and mental exhaustion, reductions in staff morale, and the inability to plan ahead for the coming school year. More than one-quarter of schools which responded to a question on indiscipline said it reached serious or very serious levels.
Dr Richardson’s report was discussed at a special NAPD meeting this week, where it was indicated that some schools might have to delay bringing back students while supervisors are recruited and cleared under the new supervision scheme finalised last week.
