Teachers' claims rejected by pay body

The body set up to examine pay claims from the three teachers' unions has rejected their demands and told them to seek the rises under the benchmarking process.

The ASTI, the TUI and the INTO all pursued their claims through the Teachers Conciliation Council (TCC).

The rejection of their claims could lead to a fresh round of teachers' strikes in September - but this time, all three unions could take to the picket line.

Ireland's teachers believed they got a poor deal compared to other public sector employees under the special claim clause of the last partnership deal.

This deal offered them an early settlers award of 3%, but the three teachers' unions said this was inadequate compared with what other workers received.

The teachers also believe that the benchmarking scheme will not deliver the 30% pay rise they are seeking in order to bring their wages into line with similarly skilled employees in the private sector.

This left the Teachers Conciliation Council as their only means of securing an adequate pay scale.

The new school term begins in just over a month.