ASTI drops ban on principals helping with strike back-up plans

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has dropped its ban on its principals co-operating with contingency plans to keep schools open in the event that the union resumes industrial action over the coming weeks.

The move means the indefinite closure of some secondary schools, which affected more than 200,000 students last month, is less likely if talks between the Government and the ASTI on the industrial dispute break down.

The ASTI’s withdrawal of supervision duties and strike action over new entrant pay led to the closure of more than 400 secondary schools on health and safety grounds following the mid-term break.

The union suspended its industrial action earlier this month after it agreed to enter mediation talks with the Department of Education.

These discussions are due to continue until the end of this month.

However, senior members of the union have warned that the ASTI may resume its industrial action if a significant deal is not brokered.

Although schools would still close if this happens, the prospect of indefinite closures is now much less of a possibility.

While school management bodies had contingency plans to hire external supervisors to fill in for teachers, the ban on principals co-operating with the plans made them almost impossible to implement.

This is because, in the absence of principals, boards of management - who serve on a voluntary, part-time basis - had to recruit, hire and vet the supervisors.

In addition, school management bodies said a minimum of about seven weeks’ notice was needed to put supervisors in place.

The union only gave three weeks’ notice for the industrial action.

In a letter to school stewards this week by the ASTI's general secretary Kieran Christie, he writes: "As previously advised, ASTI has put schools on notice that they should have contingency plans in place in the event that the directive on supervision and substitution were to be re-instated.

“Standing committee considered the matter further at its meeting of November 17th and November 18th, 2016.

“It was decided that should ASTI re-instate the directive, ASTI-member principals and deputy principals will not be prohibited from operating contingency arrangements in terms of recruitment and assignment of personnel.”

‘Strategic mistake’

Some industrial relations observers said the move to include principals and deputy principals in the ban was a strategic mistake, as the indefinite closure of schools was unsustainable.

The fact that hundreds of schools were shut as a result of the union’s industrial action also meant thousands of ASTI teachers lost pay for each day of closure.

Despite the ASTI’s move to exempt principals, schools would still face an uphill task to hire replacement supervisors if the action resumes, given that schools have ceased the process of hiring them and would likely require several weeks’ notice to put the cover in place.

The talks between the ASTI and the Department of Education are being facilitated by the Teachers Conciliation Council, an arbitration body.

In all, the union is fighting four separate battles over issues such as working additional hours, supervision and substitution duties, new entrant pay levels and junior cycle reform.

The Department of Education is understood to be keen to ensure any deal will resolve all these issues.