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PRIMARY TEACHERS IN the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) have overwhelmingly rejected the new public sector pay deal proposed by the government.
In total, 89% of teachers balloted voted to reject the deal. The INTO said that the proposed deal did not “progress the issue of pay equality” for newly-qualified teachers.
Reacting to the news, Solidarity-PBP TD Bríd Smith welcomed the ballot result, and said this was the start of Minister for Finance, and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe’s troubles in this regard.
In June, Donohoe welcomed an agreement between the government and unions on a draft pay deal.
He said the provisions put the public sector on a “more sustainable footing and secures industrial peace so that our public service remains a rewarding place for those who work in it”.
It is believed that more than 300,000 government employees will benefit from pay restoration and changes to pension contribution arrangements in the draft deal agreed. Over three years, the deal will cost the government €887 million.
The INTO, however, was critical of the deal at the time for not addressing the issue of pay inequality in the sector. Currently, a newly qualified teacher is paid a lower rate than a teacher who may have entered the profession over a decade ago.
The union balloted over half (19,172 of 36,272) of its members, and it resulted in a strong rejection of the deal.
Sheila Nunan, INTO general secretary, said: “The proposed agreement does not progress the issue of pay equality imposed by government on new entrant teachers.
While progress was made in recent years on pay equality this was not continued in the recent pay talks. There was an opportunity to draw a line under discrimination and right a wrong imposed on new entrant teachers. The proposed agreement does not signal an end to pay inequality.
She said that while talks with government with public sector representatives had led to “some progress” in areas, not enough progress had been made in a number of “key issues”.
Reacting on Twitter, Bríd Smith called it “a fantastic result” and said it was the start of Minister Donohoe’s “troubles” referring to equal pay.
In a statement last month, the national executive council of Siptu said that it recommended the acceptance of the proposals on the table from government.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform declined to comment following a request from TheJournal.ie.
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He can’t be surprised. None of the teaching unions will be going with a deal that doesn’t equalize pay scales.
@Meekus: The Unions wanted the unequal scales to begin with to protect all the members at the time…now the new members over the years are there a while and so they want more cake.
This nonsense teacher spin is never ending
@Darren Norris: it should be straightforward to calculate a balanced differences in pay scales that is fair to all teachers with no net effect on the public cost of delivering the teaching service. I’m glad the unions are finally putting this option on the table and genuinely allowing teachers to vote for true equality. Yeah, right!
@Darren Norris: incorrect Darren, the unequal scales were brought in by FEMPI, the unions had foolish signed up to a no strike clause beforehand. Please inform yourself instead of repeating spin.
By the way FEMPI is still on the books and is being used as a stick by gov to do what they want, the top brass of most unions are utterly corrupt an in the pocket of gov.
@Darren Norris: Absolutely incorrect , but please do continue to regurgitate what the govt. want you to believe.
They don’t seem to understand. Junior teachers were being moved onto new lower pay scales in order to make the system more sustainable for the long term. They’re looking at this the wrong way, the older teachers should count themselves lucky they weren’t also moved to the new system. They should have been moved too.
Paschal needs to tell the teachers and their well paid union bosses that here is your allocated budget, the same as other public servants(despite your expectations because you believe you are better than the rest of workers), now go divide it whatever way you believe fair but your lot is your lot and don’t come back.
Friend of mine is a qualified primary teacher. Couldn’t find permanent post so worked a few years in a Korean primary school. Came home and was still forced to pay and sit a tefl course to teach English here.
@Gareth Stewart: it’s about 50 euro for the basic online course and the comment just suggests Korea has poor hiring standards.
That’s it, I am going to see my boss and demand a better pay deal!
@George Vladisavljevic: that’s your right unless you are in a union in which case they will do it for you.
If you like I can show a dozen examples of private sector increases and union strikes.
Gov singing the praise of how unbelievably well they are running the country and then all the public sector workers protesting over poor pay. It doesn’t add up!
@Adrian: the govt ARE public sector workers. It adds up because the unions want to get their snouts into the cash that the govt keep advertising they have to spend. The govt themselves, ultimately, will be beneficiaries of this unrest as they themselves are represented by these unions. Hence the recent pay increases to TDs.
Why do you say it will cost the government ,you mean it will cost the tax payer .
Brid is happy at the ongoing IR unrest anyway. Another trophy tweet to add to her stunning haul of political accolades to date. The solution is simple, the teachers in receipt of the new round of increases should forego part of this and have it diverted to new entrants. Problem solved. This is what INTO said about the deal last Sept. INTO said the deal “equalises pay between teachers who started from February 2012 and those who started immediately before them in 2011″. So what has happened now, government reneged or INTO again holding the public to ransom?
Soften your cough Paschal!
It’s pretty easy folks, we all knew teachers got the summer off, we could have trained and gone into that career. No point begrudging them.
Secondly, most private workers are in fact in unions. Think about it, largest unions are construction, trade and hospitality.
Third, very few people wouldn’t look for a raise when the companies doing well. That’s reality and if you deny it I would love to hear your explanation for the car increases seen between 1995 and 2006
@Karl: meant to add, before you talk about teacher v average industrial wage. Tenner teachers are level 8 degree qualified workers, that’s a lot higher than the average industrial workers education. Then remember that the teacher average includes principals, etc. The average industrial wage does not include managers
have your say