Rejection of deal may result in tougher industrial action

SECONDARY school teachers angrily rejected the public sector pay deal, heralding a split within the trade union movement and the possibility of heightened industrial action in schools.

At the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) annual conference in Galway yesterday, delegates unanimously backed an emergency motion rejecting the proposed Public Service Agreement.

The decision of the delegates means the union’s 180 member central executive council must consider its position on the deal at a meeting tomorrow. That meeting is likely to result in the motion being put to a ballot of the ASTI’s 18,500 members, with a recommendation from the council that it be rejected.

The emergency motion was proposed by the ASTI’s incoming president Jack Keane yesterday, with delegates criticising the deal and some calling for a strike.

Members said further pay cuts were possible if the economy continued to decline, the additional hour of administrative duties was at the discretion of management and, some argued, another way of getting teachers to do for free work which was previously done by posts of responsibility holders, many of whom have retired and who cannot be replaced because of a moratorium on recruitment.

Anger was also directed at trade union leaders for signing up to the deal, amid warnings that schools could close in September.

Mr Keane said the deal would not prevent future education and pay cuts and if members backed the agreement, “we would be buying into a pig in the poke”.

Citing a clause in the deal, he said: “There could be more pay cuts if the economy declines further.”

He also said a review of the teaching contract was “imprecise” in how it was phrased.

“It is renegotiating our contracts,” he said.

Regarding the one hour a week in additional administrative work, he said this would be decided by management and asked: “Is this a way of getting teachers to do work denied to post holders?”

He added that teachers were already putting in additional hours, particularly in areas such as games coaching.

He said: “The more you define what teachers will do, the less you will get from teachers. Defining and measuring everything will damage the voluntary ethos that we have in schools. Flexibility and goodwill will disappear.”

Paul McGrath, a teacher at Coláiste Chriost Rí in Cork, said: “As a parent and as a teacher myself I would like to remind fellow parents that we are also fighting on behalf of their children and not just for teachers’ rights.”

Sally Maguire, Stillorgan, seconded the motion, and said the tone behind the agreement, particularly regarding the additional hour, had offended teachers.

“This agreement is scapegoating the public service. Yet again we are being asked to be the fall guys.

“The Government have given themselves a complete get out of jail card in this deal.”

She said the motion should be put out to ballot with a very strong recommendation to reject it as there is “nothing in it for our members”.

Before the vote on the motion, outgoing ASTI general secretary John White said rejection of the deal would mean the union going it alone.

“Rejection could involve possible imposition of elements of the deal. As of now, the formal position adopted by the public services committee is that each union is on its own. If, for example, some unions such as the TUI and ourselves reject them, we will have to deal with that circumstance and act in accordance with the wishes of our members.”

Regarding the changes to contracts, Greta Harrison from west Mayo said it was “a blank cheque to the devil”, adding that “the frighteners” were put on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) in accepting the deal.