ASTI strike can be avoided, says Richard Bruton

Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton says there is still an opportunity for the ASTI to discuss the issue of pay and to avoid a strike.

Mr Bruton said he sees no reason why the ASTI, the country’s largest second-level teaching union which has a number of grievances with the Government, should go on strike.

However, the president of the ASTI, Ed Byrne told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that a strike could take place in October.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Mr Bruton said the ASTI made a decision to withdraw from the Lansdowne Road Agreement, and will therefore not get the benefits of it.

The dispute centres on pay for teachers who were recruited in recent years, and allowances for supervision and substitution duties carried out by teachers in secondary schools.

The existing two-tier pay system in the public service came about largely as a result of a controversial decision by the then Fine Gael/Labour coalition in 2012 to abolish the payment of allowances, on top of pay, for public service staff taken on after that point.

Teaching unions contend that, as a result of this decision, recently-recruited personnel lost out on qualification payments worth several thousand euro annually, which continued to be paid to other colleagues.

Two other teaching unions, the INTO and the TUI, appear to be very close to reaching a deal with the Government on ending the two-tier pay system for their members, based on the firefighters’ formula.

Hours

Another area of contention for the ASTI is with the so-called "Croke Park hours".

One of the productivity measures which teachers had agreed under the original Croke Park public service pay agreement in 2010 was to work an additional 33 unpaid hours per year which were devoted to non-teaching duties such as planning and parent/teacher meetings.

This arrangement carried forward into the subsequent Haddington Road accord.

The Government believes that such reforms were effectively permanent and should continue under the current Lansdowne Road deal.

However, the ASTI disagrees and argued that as its members rejected Lansdowne Road, the obligation to work the so-called 33 Croke Park hours ended when the Haddington Road accord expired at the end of June.

Mr Burton said: “In May this year the ASTI balloted and then directed their members to withdraw from these hours, so they have made a decision to withdraw from the operation of these hours and from the Lansdowne Road Agreement - and naturally they don’t get the benefits of an agreement from which they have withdrawn and ceased to cooperate with.

“There is the opportunity for the ASTI to sit down, along with the INTO and TUI, to make progress on this issue - but they’ve decided unilaterally that they don’t want to do that.

“They’ve withdrawn the one hour a week and that puts them outside of Lansdowne Road, and puts them outside the chance to participate in these productive talks.”

Asked if a strike was inevitable, Mr Bruton replied: “I certainly hope not because I can’t see the rationale for this dispute”.

October strike

Ed Byrne told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that if members vote in favour of industrial action, a strike could take place in October.

Two ballots for industrial action will take place in the coming weeks. The ASTI's general secretary Kieran Christie told Newstalk Breakfast that any disruption would be regrettable. He said that the Lansdowne Road Agreement was not the Holy Grail and that there needs to be new thinking on pay agreements.

“These catch all deals suit some sectors better than others. Of all sectors teachers have done the worse,” he said.

Mr Byrne also said he could not understand why parents were not more concerned about the plans for reform of the Junior Certificate.

“It is dumbed down. Parents need to read more to understand the propaganda. The changes should be at subject level. The catalyst for this was saving €27million, not reform.”