Union promises action on pay and pensions

A MAJOR effort to increase job opportunities for out-of-work teachers and restore equal pay and pensions for those starting their careers has been promised by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO).

With dozens of recent graduates among delegates at the union’s annual congress, anger over the lack of work and the use of unqualified and retired teachers dominated debate.

A motion was backed proposing possible industrial action over the cuts to new entrants, and INTO executive member Brendan O’Sullivan questioned why newly qualified teachers should be bound by Croke Park conditions not to strike when they were not protected by it.

The reduction in their starting pay by almost 15% compared to those who started teaching before last January was part of the four-year national recovery plan last November, more than six months after the public service pay deal was shaped by unions and the former government.

“If it was done on the grounds of gender or race, it would be discrimination so how can it not be discrimination if it applies to a younger teacher doing the exact same work as a colleague?” he asked.

Pauline Flanagan, students’ union president at St Patrick’s College in Dublin, pleaded with delegates and their schools to give opportunities to primary teaching graduates from next autumn.

“We need to think about the 2,000 people who will enter the profession this summer along with those who came out last year and the year before. There should be no retired teacher in a school for longer than a week at the very most and there shouldn’t be any retired teachers covering maternity leave in a school,” she said.

The INTO task force on teacher employment aims to ensure work chances for qualified teachers are maximised. It will make recommendations on how access to the probation needed by new teachers from Department of Education inspectors for medium and long-term work eligibility can be improved.

Kate Relihan of the Dublin North West branch said the only way to protect jobs is to strike and a task force would do nothing for young unemployed teachers.

“We shouldn’t accept a situation of yellow-pack, second-class newly-qualified teachers, an injury to the weakest is an injury to all,” she said.

But executive member John Boyle said aspirations to create the world’s best education system will be meaningless unless the INTO helps prevent brain drain of young teachers.