Young teachers get some concessions under new deal
Younger teachers have been protected from the worst of the cuts in the education sector in the proposed new Croke Park II Agreement.
The Croke Park II deal has gone some way to tackle two-tier pay scales that have operated in the teaching profession since September 2011 and to restore losses suffered by teachers who entered the profession after that date on lower salaries.
Under the proposed new deal, post-September 2011 entrants will go up a point on the pay scale.
All teachers will lose their supervision and substitution payments. The final payment will be made in July, following which all teachers – including the 10pc at primary level and 40pc at second-level who currently opt out of this work – will be required to do it and for no extra money.
As well as not getting paid for the supervision and substitution duties, all teachers also have to make themselves available for this work for 49 hours a year, compared with the current 37.
Meanwhile, academic staff in universities and institutes of technology will have to work an additional 78 hours a year.
All four teacher unions will now ballot their members on acceptance or rejection of the proposed new deal. The executives of two unions, the TUI and IFUT, have recommended rejection to their members, the INTO is making no recommendation, and the ASTI has yet to decide on its course of action.
[Independent, 26 February 2013]