ASTI to decide whether to ballot on deal

The largest decision-making body of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) will decide on Saturday whether to ballot members on a deal hammered out in its pay dispute over the last three weeks.

Its 23-member standing committee met all day yesterday to consider the documents finalised this week on pay and conditions issues and junior cycle reform after three weeks of talks at the Teachers’ Conciliation Council. However, it made no decisions ahead of a meeting called for Saturday of the union’s 180-member central executive council (CEC).

During the talks, the ASTI deferred a series of one-day strikes and the withdrawal from supervision duties by its 17,500 members, actions which forced around 500 schools to close for three days in the past month.