Teachers suffer this time around

TEACHERS were some of the biggest winners in the last benchmarking process but most of them are suffering the same disappointment as their fellow public servants this time around.

In 2002, a 13% pay rise was awarded to teachers at a time when the strike of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) was causing headaches for a government just returned for another five-year term.

A long-sought ambition of all three teachers’ unions has been changes to their pay scale. From a starting point of €31,028, a teacher must work for 25 years before reaching the top salary of €60,308.

In their combined submission to the Public Service Benchmarking Body in late 2006, ASTI, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) sought a 10% salary increase across the board, as primary and second-level teachers work on a common pay scale.

Not alone was this rejected in its entirety, but so too was their appeal for reductions in the length of the scale, which would allow teachers reach the top earnings potential earlier in their careers.

This scale is much longer than that for most other public servants.

While nobody doubts the growing burden on teachers working at the coal face of a changing Ireland in terms of fast-changing demographics, it would be hard to argue they have not been substantially rewarded in recent years, in pay terms at least.

Teachers may claim they have delivered significant modernisation in return.

However, the terms of reference of the benchmarking body were quite clear that they should not take modernisation into account as this is a continuing requirement of public service in the 21st century.

There is a significant victory for the INTO on its claim for increased allowances for the principals of the country’s 3,300 primary schools, as they were seen to fall behind their second-level counterparts five years ago.

Although not giving complete parity to primary principals, the range of increases of between 6% and 31.5%, with more than 1,000 deputy principals almost doubling their allowances to above €6,500 and others benefiting from a 6% rise.

The improved allowances will result in overall salary increases for principals and their deputies of between 2% and 4%.

The estimated €8.5 million cost of these increases give primary principals a tasty chunk of the benchmarking pie, but with no crumbs from the table for more than 45,000 other teachers, their unions will be arriving at the next social partnership talks with an extremely healthy appetite.