Secondary school strikes loom over pay dispute

Hundreds of second-level schools face possible strikes later this year, because Education Minister Richard Bruton has said teachers will lose out on pay increases if they stop doing extra work.

He asked the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) to talk to him about the issues of concern, around which flexibility has been agreed with two other teaching unions.

Having decided in a ballot, finalised last week, to stop doing the 33 hours a year that have been additional since the 2011 Croke Park Agreement, ASTI members face the loss of pay restoration and pay increments that are due to public servants whose unions have signed up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA), to take effect in July.