The prospect of the ASTI co-operating with the benchmarking pay review has increased with a special executive meeting scheduled for this weekend.
Tomorrow's meeting of the 180-member Central Executive Committee will consider a proposal that the union should submit its Labour Court submission on pay to the benchmarking body. It has been called by union president, Ms Catherine Fitzpatrick.
The meeting follows a national survey of the rank and file in which over 70 per cent supported a move to submit the Labour Court document to the benchmarking body. The 22-member standing committee of the union has opposed this, saying that the ASTI's annual convention - which opposed benchmarking - is the supreme decision-making body. However, Ms Fitzpatrick now wants the executive committee to consider the issue.
Last night, ASTI sources predicted what one called "a battle royal" on the issue this weekend. Another said; "Co-operation with benchmarking would represent the end of our pay campaign".
Opposition to the benchmarking body has been a constant theme of ASTI's troubled pay campaign. Its former president, Ms Bernadine O'Sullivan, said benchmarking would lead to the "industrialisation" of education as it would bring private-sector values into the staff room.
The benchmarking body compares public sector pay to that in the private sector. This week, the other teaching unions - the INTO and the TUI - began their oral submissions to the review. Both unions are confident the review will deliver a substantial pay increase when it reports next June. They are seeking pay increases of up to 34 per cent plus a range of new allowances and a shorter incremental scale.
Submitting the ASTI Labour Court submission to the benchmarking body would represent almost full co-operation with the pay review. Some in ASTI are angry that the union has excluded itself from the benchmarking process, others would see this step as an abject surrender.
In the benchmarking talks, the Department of Education has been seeking a series of concessions from teachers in return for a substantial pay rise. These include a longer school year, co-operation with the a new inspection system and parent/teacher meetings at night.