ICTU: Pay deal is best possible scenario

WITH a second teaching union pushing for the public service pay deal to be voted down, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has warned it is the best that can be achieved through negotiation and full and disruptive strikes are the only alternative.

The standing committee of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, which represents 18,000 teachers, yesterday expressed “total and vehement” objection to the deal hammered out in Croke Park on Tuesday. That position is likely to be adopted by its full 180-member executive council which makes decisions on any salary offer and meets on April 9.

The Teachers Union of Ireland executive has already said it will be recommending rejection by its 14,500 members, and the leader of the Civil Public and Services Union, Blair Horan, has claimed the deal is in “trouble” as far as his 14,000 members are concerned.