As peace talks begin today in the teachers' dispute, the main secondary union has hardened its stance. The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland has demanded a "down-payment" from the Government by February 21st or strikes will be resumed.
The ASTI said the down-payment would be "an act of good faith" by the Government, to show it was serious about dealing with the union's 30 per cent pay claim.
A motion calling for the down-payment is expected to be passed by the union's central executive council when it meets on Saturday. It has been passed by the union's standing committee.
Those proposing the motion say it is important to set a dead line for money to be paid to its 17,000 members - "or else there is little point to the talks", a leading ASTI member said yesterday. If it was not paid, the union would revert to its strike plan, with regional stoppages into April.
February 21st is the day oral and practical exams start and the ASTI will boycott them unless the down-payment is made by then, although the Department of Education could move these exams back.
The union's members are determined only an up-front payment will stop it from resuming its strike. A promise of a future payment is not acceptable and neither is a pay award from the Government's new bench marking body.
The ASTI will meet Mr Tom Pomphrett of the Labour Relations Commission today on setting up a forum to deal with its pay claim. Education and Finance officials will be attending.
The ASTI has set a deadline of next Saturday for these talks to end, although most sources say if they are progressing well the deadline could be extended.
Despite the LRC's opposition, the union had set two deadlines - one for "talks about talks" and one for the down-payment, as the union is worried talks could continue for a long time without any pay award being made.
Some of the union's full-time officials wanted a "talks about talks" deadline of a fortnight but the increasingly hardline members of the union's standing committee rejected this.
In a blow to Department plans to run this year's exams without the ASTI, the Retired Secondary Teachers' Association has said its members would not co-operate with the Department by marking exam papers while the ASTI was in dispute.
The Department is understood to be preparing contingency plans if the ASTI refuses to carry out exam work. One idea was to ask retired teachers to mark some papers.
"We fully support the ASTI in their claim for a just salary for secondary teachers," said Ms Nuala O'Connor, honorary secretary of the association.