A national ballot of TUI members is to be held on the 3 per cent early-settlers' award. Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ballot yesterday.
But they also voted to accept an emergency motion instructing the executive to use the benchmarking process established under the PPF to secure substantial pay increases for teachers as a matter of priority.
"The executive agreed to the terms of the PPF on the clear understanding that this review would deliver large increases - that is, double increases," Mr Derrick Dunne, incoming vice-president of the TUI, told the congress.
New teachers start on a salary of just over £15,000 while unskilled school-leavers can earn £15,000 in Hewlett Packard, he said. Clearly, teachers had an excellent case. "We can delude ourselves about gains on the 3 per cent or we can go the benchmarking route."
Mr Paddy Healy (Dublin colleges) proposed the emergency motion for an increase on the 3 per cent.
The executive's motion had been about future pay, he said. This motion was about payment for the vast amount of flexibility and change which they had given for many years and for which they had not been adequately rewarded.
The motion did mean a ballot on the 3 per cent. It also meant a degree of industrial action. It would certainly be very foolish to state before the ballot what form that action would take.
The early-settlers' door was closed, Mr Colm Kirwan (Co Wicklow) argued. "Ask the nurses what they had to do to process their claim, ask the gardai, ask the bus drivers.
"Do we want to have to go back and tell our members that we have to go out on strike? Under the terms of the PCW, increases are conditional on extra productivity. What are we going to offer?"
An executive member, Mr Eddie Conlon, who stressed that he was speaking in a personal capacity, said the issue that had determined the 3 per cent motion was the concern teachers had about pay and their huge contribution to the economy, while they watched other groups break the PCW.
The gardai had broken every rule in the book and got a 17 per cent increase, he said. The nurses got 23 per cent. "This motion is about finishing the business for us."