Dempsey defends teacher decision

Education Minister Noel Dempsey has defended his decision to withhold a benchmarking pay increase from teachers due to a dispute over parent-teacher meetings.

More than 40 teachers were due to lodge a complaint with a rights commission today accusing Mr Dempsey of unfairly deducting their wages.

They were due to receive a 9.5% pay increase yesterday, but Mr Dempsey repeated today that the increase would not be paid until the dispute over parent-teacher meetings was resolved.