The Labour Court says its revised recommendation is a "final attempt" to resolve the five-month-old teachers' dispute and no "other form of intervention" will be considered.
The recommendation says ASTI teachers who help pupils catch up on lost classes will be paid £1,750, and all teachers will be able to draw £350 a year for computers/software from a new technology fund.
However, the recommendation reiterates that bench marking is the only way the ASTI can get a pay increase.
The Government has agreed not to contest the court's original finding that teachers have a "sustainable case" for a rise, although the scale of the increase may be contested. The union will be allowed to use "past productivity" in making its case.
The revised recommendation seeks to reassure teachers about benchmarking. "It is about pricing public service jobs by reference to current rates in the private sector. "The benchmarking body's terms of reference do not require it to introduce individual performance-related pay or to link pay to productivity." The ASTI, along with some allies in the other two teacher unions, was concerned that benchmarking was a "Trojan horse" for a new performance-related pay system.
The document says the teacher unions can nominate their own expert to the secretariat of the body and this should ensure a "full understanding" of teaching.
The document also refers to several changes made to the benchmarking body:
Originally it was to report by the end of 2002 but that target has been brought forward to the end of June 2002.
The Government has agreed that a quarter of any increase recommended by the body will be paid from December 1st 2001.
The court also recommends a new forum be set up to look at "all the non-pay aspects of education" by June 1st and to report six months later. "The forum will address the question of support for teachers and teaching," says the document. It also says the Government is not prepared to make an "upfront payment".
The document says bench marking is an attempt to prevent "leapfrogging" pay claims that arose in the past. "One of the essential features of the process is that the benchmarking body will examine and make recommendations on all of the main groups together, at the same time."
The Teachers' Union of Ireland and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation have already submitted their claims to the body and the document says the ASTI is now invited to do so.
The document says supervision and substitution work is a "significant problem". It says not all teachers are involved and there are different types of contracts. Because of the different approaches between schools, an "across-the-board" payment would be impossible.
It recommends that discussions between the three teacher unions, school managers and the Department of Education take place in the teachers' conciliation and arbitration scheme. It says these talks should end before the summer. Most sources expect that some kind of payment will be awarded for supervision work, which is done on a voluntary basis in most schools.