Disgusted by ASTI rejection
ASTI general secretary, Pat King, said on RTÉ that members are going on strike because teachers had a pay cut on Jul 1. However, the cut was only to those teachers earning over €65,000.
Under Haddington Road, this pay-scale would be reinstated in 2016/17, in addition to compensation for any loss of supervision and substitution allowances. All increments would be paid in full, but these would be time-delayed by months.
One allowance that will continue to be paid to teachers who commenced employment before February 2012, is the qualification allowance.
It is quite unbelievable that a teacher who has an honours primary degree, or a masters degree, gets paid an extra €4,000 to €5,000 every year.
They should never have been getting paid extra for it.
Mr King also blamed the Government, stating that cutbacks in education are affecting students. If the ASTI were so concerned about students, they would not be planning to hold parent teacher and staff meetings during school hours, which would disrupt classes for many students. In addition, they would not be boycotting the new Junior Cycle curriculum, which is to be introduced by the Department of Education in 2014.
ASTI do not seem to care for the livelihood of new entrants into the teaching profession. New entrants, who have joined the ASTI, will have reduced salary scales compared to TUI members who accepted the Haddington Road agreement.
Secondary teachers are much better paid than most of the other public servants who accepted the Haddington Road agreement, especially when taking into consideration the number of hours worked per year.
I would ask ASTI members to reconsider their selfish decision to reject the Haddington Road agreement, and to consider the students whose futures are dependent on you.
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