An Employment Appeals Tribunal hearing in Cork this week illustrated the impact of the ASTI dispute on staff-rooms around the State, writes Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent.
The publication of a letter in The Irish Times about the ASTI dispute led to a series of events, including alleged threatening phone-calls, which culminated in the resignation of a teacher from a Cork secondary school.
The teacher claimed constructive dismissal, and this week saw the 11th day of the hearing of the case before the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) in Cork. The hearing was adjourned to seek a settlement between the parties, Ms Patricia O'Shea, a former teacher in the school, and her employer, Mount Mercy School, Model Farm Road, Cork.
Ms O'Shea is suing the school for wrongful dismissal, claiming the school management failed to protect her against bullying and harassment linked to the ASTI dispute in March 2001. The school denies any dismissal.
The story has its roots in the protracted industrial dispute and shows how it split staff-rooms around the State and presented school managements with unforeseen challenges.
Ms O'Shea had been the school steward for seven years, but had decided to relinquish this responsibility in 2000 due to ill-health. She was replaced by two other teachers in the school, Ms Orla McCarthy and Ms Sally O'Donovan.
As the ASTI dispute got into full swing, Ms O'Shea wrote a letter to The Irish Times expressing her disagreement with the manner in which it was being pursued.
Published on March 23rd, 2001, it referred to the fact that the union was willing to accept increases under the PPF while criticising it; that some of its objections to benchmarking had been met; and that the marking of examinations was not part of the contract of secondary teachers and therefore, she argued, should not be used in the dispute.
She also criticised the attitude towards the dispute of the Government and certain parents' representatives.
Ms O'Shea was on sick leave from the beginning of the month. However, she expected her letter to cause controversy, and the day after its publication she was indeed confronted about it by the chairman of the ASTI Cork South branch, Mr Mick Evans. He does not work in the school and is neither a party to the current case nor a witness, but his name has come up during the hearing.
This week the school steward, Ms O'Donovan, described some of the events of that weekend to the EAT. She said Ms O'Shea had rung her that Saturday night to discuss the conversation she had had with Mr Evans earlier that day, and her concerns that her letter would be raised in the school.
Some of the contents of this telephone conversation are the subject of dispute, but it is agreed that towards the end she suggested that Ms O'Donovan should resign as school steward.
Ms O'Donovan said she was very upset by this suggestion, as she had worked hard in her position. Ms O'Shea has said that her remark was made out of concern for Ms O'Donovan, who was clearly stressed by the situation.
Ms O'Donovan told the tribunal she and Ms O'Shea had been very good friends, they were colleagues teaching the same subject, and Ms O'Shea had been supportive of her in her role as school steward up to this time.
However, she also said she was very hurt by the publication and contents of the letter. "I had had a very hard week in school. There had been a walk-out of fifth years. I was tired and exhausted. I felt it was particularly insensitive at the time."
She told the tribunal she was upset that Ms O'Shea had said she should resign, and the following Monday she sought a vote of confidence from the staff during a break. Some of the circumstances of this meeting and its aftermath are the subject of dispute.
Earlier, Ms O'Shea had told the tribunal of her deep concern at rumours that circulated in the school following the publication of her letter and the holding of this meeting, specifically that she was running a grind school while on sick leave. She also told the tribunal of allegedly threatening phone calls made to her home, which she reported to the Garda.
Ms O'Donovan was then informed by the principal, Ms Mary Murphy, that Ms O'Shea wanted to meet them both to discuss alleged harassment by the union. Ms O'Shea had said she was resigning from the school because of the alleged harassment. Ms Murphy also told her that Ms O'Shea had said that she had taped the conversation the previous Saturday. Ms O'Donovan found this deeply upsetting.
Ms O'Donovan said she was advised by the ASTI not to attend such a meeting, but agreed to do so on April 6th, almost two weeks later. During this meeting Ms O'Shea explained that she had been advised by the police to tape phone calls because of the abusive calls following the publication of her letter.
There were hopes that this meeting would lead to a resolution of the matter, but this did not happen. Ms O'Shea sought to have the matter raised with the board of management, but, she told an earlier hearing, her grievances were not passed on to a full meeting of the board. In the meantime she had resigned, and now works for Bandon Grammar School.
She claims that agreed procedures for resolving disputes were not followed, that union meetings which discussed her letter were held without her knowledge, that some of the threatening phone calls made following the publication of the letter were traced to the school, and that, generally, the school failed to provide a working environment free from harassment.
These allegations have been rejected by the school, which has said that it was seeking at all times to bring about a resolution of the disagreements. However, it points out that Ms O'Shea voluntarily resigned and took up a position in another school, undertaking when she did so not to take legal action against the school.
Whatever the outcome of the case, it is unlikely to heal the schism among the teaching community in Cork, which is undoubtedly replicated throughout the State, and could flare up again if there is a renewed dispute.