The country\u2019s primary schoolteachers are set to be balloted on industrial action if there is no progress on Government delivery of money due since last September under the terms of the public sector pay agreement.<\/p>\n
The 900 delegates at the Irish National Teachers\u2019 Organisation (INTO) voted overwhelmingly on Monday evening to support a motion that calls on the union to conduct a nationwide vote if the issue relating to local bargaining funds is not resolved by the end of this month. Proposing the motion, Shane Loftus from the union\u2019s Dublin North West branch said the members \u201cshould not be disrespected like this\u201d and that \u201ca nine-month delay is too long\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dubliner Eimear Donaghy said the delay compounded the sense that the union had been badly let down by the Government since the public sector pay deal was agreed two years ago. \u201cA 1 per cent pay increase here and 2 per cent there might seem small, but in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, every one is vital to teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said about \u20ac18 million was now overdue under the terms of the deal, with the amount constantly increasing.<\/p>\n
Another delegate, Deirdre Cronin, said that when \u201cthe Government wants to introduce a pension levy or a universal social charge, there is absolutely no delay\u201d. <\/p>\n
After the motion was passed, INTO general secretary John Boyle said the issue was compounding dissatisfaction within the union over the terms of the wider public sector agreement. That agreement provides for two increases of 1 per cent during the first half of this year, although inflation is now almost twice that.<\/p>\n
\u201cInflation is currently running at 3.6 per cent,\u201d said Boyle. \u201cYet teachers are still waiting on the allocation of the funding agreed for local bargaining.\u201d The union has proposed that the money would be used to restore 12 allowances, including one payable to those who work in remote areas or have higher qualifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis money belongs to our members who are struggling to make ends meet following an anti-worker budget that substantially reduced their purchasing power after tax bands and allowances weren\u2019t indexed and cost-of-living measures like energy credits were withdrawn. <\/p>\n
\u201cTeachers and fellow workers have been treated very shabbily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, union president Ann Horan described the failure to pay the money as a \u201cmassive breach of faith\u201d by the Government. <\/p>\n
It would, she said, only add to the pressure to seek substantial increases when it comes to negotiating a new public sector pay deal, a process due to get under way in the coming months.<\/p>\n
Irish Congress of Trade Unions president Phil N\u00ed Sheaghdha echoed that sentiment. She suggested tax bands should be amended to give lower- and middle-income earners who have been hit by the recent increase in inflation help with their bills.<\/p>\n
She said the unions have called for a meeting of the Labour Employer Economic Forum, which they expect to take place on Friday week, when, she said, they will tell employers and Ministers of the need to do more for workers suffering in the cost of living crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe there is some tweaking of the bands that can happen. Workers are asking why they are being taxed at the rate they are when they see the changes that can be made in other areas, like the VAT on hospitality reducing to 9 per cent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The country\u2019s primary schoolteachers are set to be balloted on industrial action if there is no progress on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-385539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}