Schools are not expected to be disrupted by the ongoing ASTI ban on supervision and substitution once they reopen in the coming weeks.
The president of the ASTI, Mr P.J. Sheehy, said yesterday that "parents and students shouldn't be concerned". A contingency plan operated in schools prior to June and was put in place at very short notice. "It operated and schools functioned. I think the same will apply from September," Mr Sheehy said on RTÉ's This Week radio programme.
The ASTI was the only one of the three teacher unions to withdraw in March from voluntary supervision and substitution arrangements over its 30 per cent pay claim.
The claim has not been resolved and the ban on supervision and substitution is still in place. Asked about concerns that schools might not open because of the supervisory boycotts, Mr Sheehy said: "There is no indication at the moment that schools won't open."
The "position is that the contingency plan that is there at the moment will operate from the new school year", he added.
Asked about possible resolution of the dispute and making supervision payments pensionable, Mr Sheehy said that the union would be in a "different situation" if the supervision payments were pensionable and "clearly" stated as so.
If that was so it would "allow us to have a more informed debate on the issue", he said.
The union's standing committee is to meet on Thursday and all the issues will be discussed at the meeting. He pointed out, however, that the standing committee was not in a position to go against the directive issued to withdraw from voluntary supervision and substitution.
"We are in a situation of industrial dispute and the context of the substitution supervision withdrawal has to be put in the overall context of having our pay claim addressed."
