Teachers' strike: Department agrees process with school boards to arrange cover during strike action

The race has begun to arrange replacement staff to limit how long over 500 second-level schools will be forced to close due to industrial action by teachers next month.

Ahead of talks today between Education Minister Richard Bruton’s officials and the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), the department finalised arrangements with schools’ bodies to get staff in place after the mid-term break to supervise students during lunch breaks and other periods.

The union’s 18,000 members will stop doing these duties when schools are due to reopen on Monday, November 7, after a week-long mid-term.

The action is in response to pay increases being withheld because ASTI members refuse to continue doing an extra 33 hours’ work a year which was done under a previous pay agreement to the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) which the union is not signed up to.

Before the mid-term break, they are scheduled to take the first of seven days of strikes tomorrow week, October 27.

However, most of the 525 schools where ASTI members work would be forced to close until early December anyway because it will take that long for management to hire, train, and have replacement supervisors Garda-vetted.

In details advertised today in the Irish Examiner and elsewhere, the Department of Education promises €38.36 to temporary staff who do two hours of supervision in a school day, with €19.18 to be paid for each additional hour.

The numbers of staff needed in schools will depend on local circumstances, including the availability of non-ASTI teachers or non-teaching staff such as special needs assistants (SNAs) who might make themselves available for the work.

But a major difficulty will be organising training and operation of supervision rosters, as principals who are ASTI members will be banned from co-operation with the arrangements.

Hiring will result in panels being formed, which might see those employed being required to be available to different schools in an area, depending on local needs or short-notice requirements. The training required would also have to be overseen by others, and is expected to be run by school management bodies representing the three second-level sectors.

The biggest disruption will be at the 375 voluntary secondary schools, those run by or for religious orders — where teachers are almost exclusively ASTI members. But the effect will also be felt at 95 dual-union community and comprehensive schools, and possibly dozens of community colleges which are operated by education and training boards (ETBs).

After talks yesterday between his officials and representatives of schools likely to be affected by strikes and potential school closures, Mr Bruton left for China on an education trade mission. But he will return early on Friday — four days ahead of schedule in light of the industrial relations situation.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) executive will discuss the dispute on Friday, as its members could have to forego a day’s pay if they refuse to pass ASTI pickets at the 100-plus schools where members of both unions work.

The Department of Education has communicated the urgency of Garda vetting for supervisor staff to the relevant authorities.