TUI to reject changes voted on by non-teaching union members
The strong message from the TUI comes just weeks ahead of a crucial decision by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) on whether to continue the social partnership process.
With uncertainty over whether unions will enter pay talks with Government and employers, TUI president Tim O’Meara told his union’s annual congress in Wexford that ministers and corporate bosses have been feathering their own nests while urging pay restraint on ordinary workers.
Under previous national pay deals, conditions attached to salary increases for teachers and other public servants have placed extra workloads and responsibilities on them.
But while teacher unions are expected to demand that no further conditions be attached to any new pay deal, the TUI is making its position clear before the process even begins.
“In the event of there being further demands on our conditions of service, we have committed to a decision-making process involving members of this union only in regard to the conditions of service for members of this union,” TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said.
The union’s delegates to the ICTU conference on April 17 will propose that any talks be entered on the grounds that no changes to individual work sector conditions should be voted on by unaffected unions.
Under the Towards 2016 national wage agreement, unions agreed to changes in timing of parent-teacher meetings, revised procedures for underperforming teachers and new systems for redeploying staff at schools with falling student numbers.
TUI members rejected Towards 2016 because of concerns that these conditions were being imposed by the wider trade union movement, but the majority of unions affiliated to ICTU voted to accept the deal.
Mr O’Meara said that workers seeking pay rises in good times are told it will damage the country’s competitiveness but now that belt-tightening has returned they are told rises cannot be afforded.
“National wage agreements in the recent past have benefited the economy but not the worker who contributed to it. They have also led to increasing workloads for teachers and lecturers, and an obsession with performance,” he said.
He described the public service benchmarking exercise, from which most teachers and public servants gained no pay rises, as a failed process.
“There is something seriously wrong in the private sector, where low paid workers are given little or no increases while senior managers award themselves huge sums of money. This is now being replicated in the public sector,” said Mr O’Meara.
He also warned against any cuts to education spending and services despite the present economic circumstances.
“The Government has promised there will be no slowdown in spending on infrastructure but there is no more important infrastructure than a well-educated workforce,” he said.
