ASTI set to strike for new staff’s equal pay

The restoration of equal pay for younger teachers would be required if an imminent ballot for possible strikes at hundreds of second-level schools is to be called off, a union leader has said.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) president Ed Byrne said the union is obliged by a motion at its annual conference in March to call a vote of its 17,000 members on industrial action if the pay of new entrants since 2011 is not put back on par with longer-serving members by the end of the month.

Although the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA), to which other teacher unions have signed up, commits the Government to gradual increases in those recent entrants to teaching, and talks which are ongoing on their allowances, Mr Byrne said that does not satisfy his members’ demands.