Sir, – Your editorial "Teachers in dispute: A collective agreement is the best way to restore pay and conditions" (May 30th), on matters concerning the recent rejections of the Croke Park hours/Lansdowne Road agreement by the ASTI and the TUI, raises a number of issues.
It is claimed that those who rejected Lansdowne Road have “little appetite” for agreement. Nothing could be further from the truth.
These “agreements” are constructed and served up by diktat by senior civil servants on six-figure salaries and politicians. There are no proper discussions; any talks that do occur involve changes so minor to be almost considered irrelevant. This minor tweaking of “agreements” is usually carried out to force reballots of rejected “agreements”, as it appears that the Department of Education and Skills does not take no for an answer.
Why, for instance, are teachers not given accreditation for extra-curricular activity or extra teaching in the Croke Park hours? Who decided that sitting in a boring two-hour after-school meeting is a useful and productive way to use time? Croke Park hours for teachers also have to be done collectively in some sort of wishy-washy, group-hug activity.
Furthermore, they have nothing to do with continuous professional development, as is sometimes claimed. They are an awful way to treat professionals, and this is why ASTI members rejected them.
You then appear to make a claim that the Lansdowne Road agreement offers “better prospects” for young teachers. There is absolutely nothing in the agreement that states this to be the case. What is occurring is that senior civil servants and politicians are threatening teachers with removal of two-year contracts of indefinite duration if teachers do not shut up and do as they are told.
A claim that the Government’s planned pay commission is “due to focus on narrowing two-tier pay structures for new entrants” has absolutely no evidence to back it up. This planned pay commission is due to look at salaries across the public sector and is not solely concerned with new entrants. There is no commitment to narrow the gap for newly appointed public servants.
Your reference to the “solid career path” that teaching offers is interesting. The moratorium on promotion in the public sector has been implemented since 2009.
Finally, less of the hyperbolic language please. Teachers are not “militants”. They don’t carry guns or ammunition. – Yours, etc,
ROBERT WHELAN,
Dublin 7.