Parents may run schools if teachers strike

The Government is planning to hire parents to try to keep hundreds of schools open in the face of a wave of industrial action by the country’s biggest secondary teachers’ union.

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland announced details of seven days of strike action – beginning on October 27th through to December – which will close two out of three secondary schools.The strike days include Thursday, October 27th; Tuesday, November 8th; Wednesday, November 16th; Thursday, November 24th; Tuesday, November 29th, Tuesday, December 6th and Wednesday, December 7th.

In addition, the union says it will withdraw supervision and substitution duties from Monday, November 7th onwards. This is likely to lead to the closure of up to 525 secondary schools on health and safety grounds.

The Government is now facing a series of strikes by both gardaí and secondary teachers over the coming weeks in the most serious challenge to its public service pay policy.

The scale of the teachers’ industrial action is greater than expected and comes as rank-and-file gardaí prepare for unprecedented strike action.

The Department of Education and school management bodies have drawn up draft contingency plans, which have been seen by The Irish Times, in a bid to keep schools open.

Vet supervisors

Application forms will be issued to the parents of schoolchildren in affected schools to become supervisors for a fee of €38-a-day. However, it is likely most schools affected will not have time to recruit and vet supervisors. The ASTI’s decision not to give a derogation to school principals – which would have exempted them from the industrial action means that many contingency plans will be very difficult to implement. The decisions on the nature and timing of the industrial action were taken by the union’s 23-member standing committee at a meeting in Dublin yesterday.

It follows an overwhelming vote by ASTI members earlier this week to engage in industrial action. Minister for Education Richard Bruton expressed disappointment over the ASTI's decision which meant that severe disruption to students and parents was now "inevitable".

He said it was regrettable that the ASTI have decided not to co-operate with the contingency arrangements by giving just three weeks notice rather than the seven sought by the department. Mr Bruton re-stated the Government’s position that significant gains of up to €2,000 per year for new teachers were available for the ASTI members under the terms of the Lansdowne Road pay deal.

‘Inferior pay’

The ASTI president, Ed Byrne, said teachers were taking the action on foot of the “worsening of members’ terms and conditions” and inferior pay rates for newly qualified teachers.

He said the union was demanding a firm guarantee of when newly qualified teachers would get the same pay and conditions as other teachers.

“Teachers are reluctant to take industrial action or to interrupt the running of schools in any way,” he said.

“However, we have flagged our serious issues well in advance and remain available and committed to a resolution through talks without pre-conditions.”

When pressed about whether the union was concerned about the impact on exam-year students, Mr Byrne said: "When a solution is found, teachers are never found wanting in making up time for exam students.