Unions join forces on pay negotiations

THE Government is facing a significant pay battle with the country’s 70,000 teachers who are insisting they will not give any more productivity increases in the next social partnership deal.

The four main teacher unions have devised a joint approach ahead of next month’s decision by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on whether to enter pay talks.

One of the seven points on which they have reached agreement, in a position paper seen by the Irish Examiner, is that the flexibility and change provisions of the existing deal Towards 2016 be sufficient to warrant any future salary increases.