Cavan schools to close Thursday for strike

Secondary schools across Cavan will close their doors on Thursday as part of a one day strike, which has been initiated by the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI), writes Ultan Sherry.

Those that will be closed include Loreto College Cavan, The Royal School Cavan and St Aidan’s Comprehensive School, Cootehill, and any with ASTI members.
“We basically want equal pay for equal work for our newly qualified teachers, which mainly affects anyone who came into the profession around 2011,” Denyse Hughes told The Anglo-Celt this week.
She is a member of the standing committee of the ASTI from Dundalk and represents Cavan, Monaghan, Dundalk and Drogheda.
The union is currently not part of the Landsdowne Road Agreement for the restoration of pay to civil service workers, although such a stance was discussed at their annual conference back in April.
“At the moment, younger teachers are highly qualified when emerging from university, working many years. They can’t get basic full employment straight away, but this is going on into their 30s, 10 years later,” according to Ms Hughes.
The standing committee member also stated that there are instances when less-paid teachers are working shifts during the week from 9am-4pm and are only earning €200 a week because they are not contracted to full time employment. Because of this, many new teachers have started heading abroad. “Most years in recent times have seen many people heading abroad. I actually heard a story recently of a school that paid for flights for someone to come over and do an interview,” Ms Hughes said.

Engage in talks - Department
In response to some of Ms Hughes’ remarks, the Department of Education said that the current dispute was an unnecessary one, and called on the ASTI to engage in meaningful talks to try and resolve it. In relation to issues surrounding pay for newly-qualified teachers, the Department outlined that there is a deal on offer to ASTI, which would see pay increases of 15% and 22% for new entrant teachers, with a route to further possible increases after that.
In a statement released by the Department this week, they remarked that the starting pay for newly qualified teachers would increase by 15% between August 31, 2016 and January 1, 2018. This in money terms amounts to €31,009 rising to €35,602 within two years.
In addition to this, the Department said that teachers recruited since September 1, 2015, would see a 22% increase in their pay between August 31, 2016 and January 1, 2018. This amounts to €31,009 rising to €37,723 over a two-year period.