The Department of Education is refusing to improve on the £27 per hour offer to teachers for supervision, despite the threat of renewed school disruption.

Officials sources have ruled out any possibility of making the payment pensionable.

Earlier this year, the commission on public service pensions found that voluntary allowances like that proposed for supervision and substitution should not be pensionable.

Official sources say any move to make the payment pensionable would unleash a wave of protest from other public service unions.

The Government is also reluctant to improve on the £27 per hour offer. This was agreed despite some opposition from the Department of Finance.

Sources hope that "clarification" of the supervision offer may be enough to prevent school disruption - if the teaching unions reject it. This might include moves to index-link any supervision payments.

The following outlines the positions on supervision in the three teaching unions.

TUI

The result of the TUI ballot on the supervision offer will be known next Friday. The TUI has a large radical group, which is usually kept in check by a more conservative leadership. The union voted against the national pay deal (the PPF) but accepted the wish of congress and entered benchmarking.

TUI members are voting without a recommendation from their executive, so the result is very difficult to call.

INTO

The INTO, whose executive has already endorsed the proposal, will begin a ballot of members shortly. The union seems certain to accept the £27 per hour offer.

ASTI

The union voted by 55 per cent to 45 per cent to withdraw from supervision. But it will not consider withdrawal from these services until after November 5th.

In the interim, it is conducting a school-by school survey of members. The union is still under pressure to allow its members an opportunity to vote on the original £27 per hour offer.