Government faces rows with teachers, doctors and nurses

The Government is facing the prospect of conflict with secondary teachers as well as a major row in the health service after the Health Service Executive moved to suspend the recruitment of doctors and nurses.

The country’s biggest secondary teachers union voted yesterday to cease working additional hours, a move which may result in teachers facing steep pay cuts and a wave of school closures this autumn.

The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI)’s decision to withdraw from working 33 additional hours per year is expected to lead the Government to impose financial penalties which could cost teachers up to €6,000 per year.

The union has warned that any action taken against its members will lead to a ballot for industrial action in schools.

ASTI members voted by a margin of 68 per cent to 32 per cent to cease working the 33 Croke Park hours which have been used in general for meetings in schools and with parents.

Supervision duties

The first penalty that members of ASTI are likely to face is losing about €800 in pay, which was scheduled to be incorporated into their salary for September for carrying out supervision and supervision duties in schools.

Increments will also be frozen for ASTI members, though the effect of this measure may not take effect for several months.

It is expected the when ASTI notifies the Department of Education formally of the date from which its members will withdraw from the Croke Park hours, it will then inform the Workplace Relations Commission that the union is now outside the Lansdowne Road public service agreement.

In the absence of any move by Government to amend financial emergency legislation, this would trigger a freeze on incremental pay increases for members of ASTI until 2018.

Substitution payments

Separately in this scenario the Department of Public Expenditure will be unlikely to sanction the first phase of promised supervision and substitution payments scheduled for September.

In a statement last night, a spokesman for Minister for Education Richard Bruton said he was "concerned at the implications for individual teachers and the implications for major disruption for students and schools from September if the ASTI proceeds with the proposed action".

ASTI president Máire Ní Chiarba said teachers believed the Croke Park hours were unproductive and had a negative effect on students’ education.

She said the result – based on a ballot turnout of 76 per cent – was a strong statement from members to the Government that they were determined to reclaim their terms and conditions following years of cuts and reduced resources.

Meanwhile, the Government has come under fire from trade unions and the Opposition after the HSE suspended the recruitment of new staff in hospitals.

The HSE has come under pressure within Government over recent months following a surge in recruitment.

In a statement the HSE said: “Pending agreement and approval of a workforce plan for each hospital group, the groups have been advised of a requirement to pause on any further additions to payroll.”