Teachers at a private school in Dublin are threatening legal action to force management to pay around €45,000 in back pay they claim is owed to them before the school closes down in June.
Pembroke School in Ballsbridge, widely known as Miss Meredith's, is due to close at the end of the academic year due to what it says are falling pupil numbers and rising costs.
Most teachers at the school are employed by the Department of Education, but others are paid directly by the school. The Asti has taken up the case of three of the privately paid teachers.
Science teacher Máiréad Ó Ríordáin, Asti shop steward at the school, said they want to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and that arrears are paid fully.
"We are considering the legal route very seriously and we have already consulted lawyers and financial advisers in relation to this," said Ms Ó Ríordáin.
The school management declined to comment on the specifics of the case but said that it was in negotiation with the privately paid teachers regarding redundancy and severance packages.
"We have already had some meetings with them and a further meeting is planned," said a director of the school, Penny O'Connell Fannon.
Ms O'Connell Fannon blamed the school's closure on rising outgoings including recent pay awards to teachers that she said put "extreme pressure on our costs".
"We very much regret that Pembroke School is due to close in June. . . The whole thing is very, very sad for all of us involved. It has been coming down the road for a long time but we don't have the pupil numbers to sustain the school anymore," she said.
The school, located in an elegant Georgian building on Pembroke Road in the heart of Dublin 4, was established by Kathleen Meredith in 1929.