Teachers to work extra hour as union accepts Croke Park deal [IrishTimes]
- Published: 09 February 2011
SECONDARY TEACHERS will have to work an extra hour per week after members voted to accept the Croke Park deal in a re- ballot of members.
The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) voted by a 2:1 margin to endorse the deal.
Surprisingly, only 38 per cent of ASTI’s 18,000 members voted in the ballot. The Croke Park deal on public service reform promises no pay cuts or compulsory redundancies until 2014 – in exchange for modernisation measures.
For teachers, the Croke Park deal means an extra 33 hours a year, extra supervision and new redeployment measures.
Last year, ASTI voted by a similar margin to reject the deal, as recommended by their executive.
This time round, the executive made no recommendation to members. The volte-face on the agreement comes after threats from the Department of Education that some 300 surplus teachers could be made redundant unless ASTI backed the deal.
The reballot followed over a dozen meetings between the department and ASTI which teased out how the deal would work in schools.
An ASTI briefing document circulated to members said these clarifications of the deal represented “the optimum achievable for members in the current negotiating climate”.
Yesterday, ASTI general secretary Pat King said: “After a healthy debate and careful consideration of all of the issues, the members have made their decision.”
The vote is a major coup for Mr King who has been anxious to shrug off ASTI’s militant image since he took office last year.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
