I’m staying in my €100,000 a year job, says Lennon

ASTI General Secretary Charlie Lennon has vowed to face down his opponents when a debate on his continued leadership takes place at a special meeting scheduled for next month.

Hardliners in the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland want Mr Lennon to step down, as they are unhappy with his role as chief negotiator in the teachers’ pay dispute which was resolved after three years of disruption.

Demands for a 30% pay rise failed, but they subsequently voted to accept a 20% increase under benchmarking and social partnership in April. Mr Lennon’s detractors in the 17,000-strong union have called for the establishment of a sub-committee to examine his performance in the pay negotiations.

Speaking from Brussels last night, Mr Lennon said he wouldn’t be standing down from his job which carries a salary of over €100,000 plus a company car and expenses.

“The special convention is set to go ahead and I am considering my position in relation to the motion and the proposal to review my performance.”

The matter is to be discussed at a specially-convened meeting of ASTI’s 180-member Central Executive Committee (CEC) on October 4.

Last night, a member of the union’s powerful standing committee said all teachers have to be made accountable all the time and their general secretary should be equally answerable. “It seems he was less than enthusiastic in putting the case of the ASTI during the pay dispute,” the source said.

Despite the prospect of a detailed review, other sources suggest the motion could be defeated by the CEC, with Mr Lennon vindicated.

The Dundalk-born union leader, who joined the ASTI 15 years ago this week, is held in high esteem within the wider trade union movement as an astute negotiator, internationally as well as in Ireland.

The controversy over Mr Lennon’s position arose during heated proceedings at the union’s annual convention in Limerick last April. Pressure from hardline members to put the same motion before CEC was resisted by then president PJ Sheehy, on the grounds of procedures for handling staff-management disputes. The union’s current president, Pat Cahill, who will chair the special meeting in Dublin, declined to comment on the situation last night.

The same executive meeting will also debate motions on expenses for the union’s 23 staff members, following changes to staff expense forms made by the honorary treasurer Patricia Wroe earlier this year. A hearing on the issue, as well as other tensions between staff and membership, is due at the Labour Court next month.