THE general secretary of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, Senator Joe O'Toole, defended the decision of his union executive to cast its 17 votes in favour of Partnership 2000 at the ICTU special delegate conference yesterday.
It had been indicated that the executive would oppose the deal until the Government agreed to concede 3,000 new promotional posts to the INTO earlier this week.
The INTO accepted restructuring proposals under the PCW 10 months ago. Members have not benefited, however, because no agreement has been reached between the Department of Education and the secondary teachers' unions.
The INTO was criticised over its decision by delegates from the Teachers Union of Ireland and the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union. The TUI general secretary, Mr Jim Dorney, said the Government had sought to conclude side agreements with unions "without consultation with some parties whom they affect".
To cheers from some delegates, he continued: "I am specifically referring to the teachers' pay deal three days ago, which was rejected by both ourselves and our colleagues in the ASTI".
Both unions would be raising the issue at a specially convened meeting of the Teachers Conciliation Council next week.
The senior ATGWU official in the Republic, Mr Mick O'Reilly, accused the Government of trying "to stitch up votes before this conference". "That sort of deal does our credibility no good with any section of the trade union movement," he said.
Outside the conference, he said if Partnership 2000 had been passed by 17 votes it would have been "morally flawed".
Mr O'Toole said there was no principle involved in how national agreements were negotiated. It was a process and it would be helpful "if naive national newspaper leader writers and certain extremist, militant interests in the trade union movement could understand that".
His union had stated right through the negotiations that it would vote strategically and in a way that would retain the trust and confidence of members. "We only took what has been lying in Government coffers for the past year," he said to hecklers. "We didn't take anything we were not entitled to, and we didn't eat anyone else's dinner along the way."