Teachers face delay in pay rise over meetings row

MORE than 40,000 teachers are unlikely to receive pay increases until at least next month because of continued failure to agree on the timing of parent-teacher meetings.

Two days of resumed talks on the issue reached an impasse yesterday evening, after negotiations on the issue broke down before Christmas.

A requirement of teachers in return for the second phase of benchmarking increases and pay rises under the Sustaining Progress national wage agreement was to agree on times of parent-teacher meetings. The increases of almost 10% should mean at least €200 more a month for teachers with more than five years’ experience.

The timing of meetings was a particularly thorny issue at second level, where most teachers must attend meetings for each of five or six year groups. However, after unions accepted Department of Education demands to have all meetings after school hours, another thorny issue arose yesterday.

According to union sources, Education Minister Noel Dempsey’s officials sought acceptance of a facility to allow parents who missed the scheduled meeting to arrange to meet at any time with their child’s teacher or teachers.

This again raised concern among union leaders and the matter has now been referred to an independent arbitration board for a decision which will be binding on both sides.

While both sides were tight-lipped on the discussions during the week, there had been strong hopes that the matter could have been resolved.

Last night, a Department of Education spokesperson said both sides would expect the arbitration process to take place quickly. Parents groups have long sought to have meetings with teachers held in the evening, or to have more flexible arrangements agreed at local level where it is more suitable to parents.

“Meetings should not be held during children’s teaching time and, as many of the half a million parents of primary school children work outside the home, they should be generally be held in the evening.

"There must be gains for children and parents, as well as for teachers, from the pay deal,” said National Parents Council (Primary) chief executive Fionnuala Kilfeather.

The first quarter of the 13% benchmarking rise was added to teachers’ pay cheques last summer, backdated to December 2001, and the final quarter is due to be incorporated into all public servants’ salaries by June 2005. The cost of benchmarking and Sustaining Progress increases to teachers will be around €190 million this year.