Classes for up to 7,000 FAS trainees were disrupted yesterday because of a one-day strike by instructors. The instructors, who received pay increases of up to 27 per cent for agreeing to radical restructuring of courses, are complaining that the changes are too stressful.
The changes are needed to convert FAS certification from courses based on the number of years served by trainees to a standards-based system.
This requires more intensive work and longer hours in the classroom by the 450 instructors.
A SIPTU branch secretary, Mr Paddy Trehy, said yesterday that management had failed to address the issue of teaching hours and class contact time. He said that in some cases members were having to spend up to 34.75 hours a week in the classroom.
The instructors have classes ranging in size from 12 to 20. Some of them have found the transition to a classroom-type environment difficult.
Apprentices who normally attended FAS courses yesterday were told to report to their employers, while other trainees were told to study at home. A Programme for Change was accepted by the 2,000 FAS staff last year. Under this most of them received pay rises of between 6 per cent and 7 per cent. Instructors, who were facing some of the greatest changes and strongly resisted the deal, were awarded a 27 per cent pay rise. This gave them a salary scale of £17,000 to £28,000 a year.
Outstanding difficulties were to be referred to a mediation panel chaired by a former ICTU president, Mr Phil Flynn. Talks to resolve the problem broke down at a meeting on Monday.
Yesterday FAS accused SIPTU of being "clearly in breach of our established industrial relations procedures" and acting "contrary to the spirit and intent of the joint Programme for Change agreement". It accepted there were problems of interpretation of the programme but said these should be addressed through mediation.