€5k disparity in salary for teacher

Siobhan Peters, a Tipperary branch delegate and a member of the standing committee of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), joined the teaching profession in 2011 but earns €5,000 less than her 2010 colleague and is five points behind him on the pay scale.

Siobhan, who was speaking to a motion, overwhelmingly carried, at the ASTI annual convention in Cork yesterday, said she did not expect pay parity overnight, but she would like a timeline. She wants the campaign for equal pay to “bear fruit before the end of the school year”.

Siobhan was one of several delegates who spoke to the motion that effectively puts a May deadline on reaching a resolution on the issue of equal pay, in the absence of which ASTI will ballot members for strike action. Since 2011, new entrants to teaching are paid less than their pre-2010 colleagues, following the introduction of a two-tier pay scale.