Secondary teachers announce seven days of strike action

Hundreds of second-level schools face closure on dates from Thursday, October 27th after the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) announced details of strike action.

The union said it would withdraw from supervision and substitution duties from Monday, November 7th onwards, in addition to holding all-day strikes on seven days between the end of Ocotber and the first week of December.

The withdrawl of supervision and substitution duties is likely to close about 500 secondary schools on health and safety grounds.

The seven strike days are: Thursday, October 27th; Tuesday, November 8th; Wednesday, November 16th; Thursday, November 24th; Tuesday, November 24th; Tuesday, December 6th; and Wednesday December 7th.

Decisions on the nature and timing of the industrial action were taken by the ASTI’s 23-member standing committee at a meeting in Dublin on Friday.

It followed a ballot of members, the results of which were announced on Thursday, that showed strong support for industrial action on two fronts.

In a statement on Friday evening, ASTI president of Ed Byrne said teachers were reluctant to interrupt the running of schools in anyway.

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

ASTI members backed industrial action on the issue of restoration of full-pay equality for newly-qualified teachers, with 80 per cent of members voting for it.

Separately, 78 per cent of ASTI members voted to withdraw from supervision and substitution duties.

During the summer, the Government shelved the promised reintroduction of payments to ASTI members for supervision and substitution duties after it determined the union had “repudiated” the Lansdowne Road public service pay agreement.

Unless school authorities secure alternative personnel to carry out supervision and substitution duties by the time ASTI members withdraw from these roles, schools face having to close on health and safety grounds.

Minister for Education Richard Bruton said on Friday that it would take the Department of Education and school authorities "at least" seven weeks to put together contingency plans to deal with industrial action.

The time would be required to recruit staff to take over supervision duties in schools and to allow for Garda vetting, the Minister told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.