Dempsey denies change in supervision deal

The Minister for Education has insisted the deal agreed with teachers on supervision duties that is the subject of a dispute with the ASTI has not and will not change.

The ASTI executive voted last night to ballot its members for a second time on the deal, which would see teachers being paid €37 per hour for supervision and substitution duties.

ASTI members voted by a 60-40 majority last November to accept the deal - initially drawn up in September 2001. They agreed to be available for 37 hours per school year. The Irish National Teachers' Organisation and the Teachers' Union of Ireland have agreed to the proposal.

ASTI has accused management of making "totallyunacceptable demands" on members which wouldinvolve "a complete distortion of the scheme".

Mr Charlie Lennon, the general secretary of the ASTI, said this morning that the union was angered at what he claimed was a shift in the Government and management position.

He said that when ASTI members voted on the proposal in November 2002, they were working on the assumption that "teachers who made themselves available to deliver the service would get paid" for doing so.

"That is a very fundamental change, because it means people working for the number of hours they are actually committed to and working for considerably more than that," he argued.

They could end up working 60 or 70 hours, he said. This would consist of sitting around waiting to be called to go on supervision duty. "The requirement for work has effectively almost doubled," he said.

However, Mr Dempsey said: "This scheme has not changed and is not going to change," he said. "It's exactly the same scheme that they voted on pre-Christmas".He said clarifications were sought before the ASTI ballot and it is "quite clear that there was never any question of anybody being paid for just being available". The deal is "very, very specific about only being paid for delivering on a service".

Mr Dempsey said teachers are now being offered €37 an hour for doing substitution and supervision work which previously they did voluntarily. "They're not being asked to do a huge amount, only a maximum of one-and-a-half hours a week".

Mr Lennon said it was up to the ASTI executive on whether or not to recommend rejection of the scheme, but he felt it likely they would do so. ASTI members would be balloted in the next few weeks, he said.