New teachers face extra 4% cut in pay, union claims

NEW entrants to teaching have been targeted with a pay cut of 14% instead of the 10% cut for new public servants announced in the Government’s Four Year Plan, a major teaching union has claimed.

General Secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) Pat King has written to the Department of Education and Skills, requesting that the matter be rectified.

“The ASTI strongly objects to the proposed 10% reduction in the pay of new entrants to the public sector. What we find most objectionable, however, is that new teachers — who up to now have been appointed to the third point of the teachers’ salary scale — will be appointed to the first point.