Benchmarking debate: Anger over the 13 per cent benchmarking award to teachers was evident yesterday when a proposal to lodge a new pay claim was rejected by just one vote by TUI members in Ennis. However, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, reminded delegates that benchmarking was "the only game in town".
The motion, by Limerick delegates, proposed a new pay claim to compensate for issues such as the smaller than expected benchmarking award, increased productivity and inflation.
After a heated debate, which included calls for mass resignations, 222 delegates voted against the motion, with 221 voting for it. A request for a recount was rejected but this may be revisited this morning. The debate heard calls for the resignation of all TUI members who had voted for the pay agreement.
Ms Mary Ryan of the Co Dublin branch said the TUI executive should resign "en masse" if they said they could not do any better on pay. "We are being manipulated, left, right and centre," she said. The agreement would have to be dismantled and the process begun again.
Her colleague, Ms Joan O'Leary, said TUI members had been "sold down the Swanee" when the union agreed to participate in the benchmarking process without balloting members.
Mr Sean MacCarthy, executive committee member, described the motion as "divisive" and said the people had spoken and it was now up to members to devise a coherent strategy for the handling of further matters of pay and conditions.
Mr Jim Dorney, TUI general secretary, said asking the TUI executive to lodge a new pay claim would be sending them on a "wild goose chase" because it was not allowed under the pay agreement.
A Cork teacher, Mr Pat Crowley, said anyone who thought they would get a 34 per cent increase under benchmarking was "crazy".
"These people are going to lead us up the bloody hill again. Where are we going to go after that? Throw ourselves over the cliff?"
Afterwards, the Mr Dempsey said it would be a retrograde step if the TUI tried to overturn the decision of their members by seeking a renegotiation of the pay claim. "The members of this union, along with members of the other two unions, voted very, very solidly in favour of it and that is the only game in town and they know that," he said.
