Leaders of the main teaching unions have called for Taoiseach Micheál Martin to intervene in order to prevent further strike action on the first day of industrial action over pay.
Speaking on a picket line outside Hartstown Community College in Dublin 15 on Wednesday, the general secretaries of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) all indicated a lack of trust between their members and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
Almost all schools, colleges and universities countrywide were closed on Wednesday in the biggest public sector strike seen here for almost two decades.
[ ‘Nobody can survive on the wages we’re getting’: Live updatesOpens in new window ]
Approximately 100,000 teachers and lecturers who are members of the INTO, ASTI, TUI and the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) went on strike over what they called a lack of meaningful engagement from Government on a new public sector pay deal.
In total, there were more than 300,000 public sector workers, including teachers, doctors, nurses and civil servants, taking part in Wednesday’s strike.
“I think it’s fairly evident there’s been a breakdown of trust. And I think really we’re going to need somebody to bring the parties together,” said ASTI general secretary Linda Kelly.
“I think it was too little, too late from the Minister [for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers] last night to have his epiphany around pay being a central part of a pay deal. And I think that needs to be addressed. I do think there is a role here for the Taoiseach,” said Kelly.
Chambers told RTÉ’s Prime Time last night that pay could be dealt with first in any negotiations.
“The question is, can we trust that now?” said INTO general secretary John Boyle.
“This is the same Minister who told the general public only three weeks before the budget that there will be €2 billion available for public service pay, and yet on budget day, he only made available €1 billion, plus point two of a billion for pensions. And within the €1 billion, a lot of that money is already spent on carry-over costs.
How will the public sector pay dispute end?
Listen |
33:29
“So we are going to have to get assurances from the Taoiseach, who needs to step in here, that whatever negotiations are going to commence, and I am confident that they will commence after last night’s change of heart from the Minister, but the Taoiseach is going to have to convince us that if pay is going to be spoken about at the beginning of the talks, that it’s all aspects of pay,” said Boyle.
Meanwhile, TUI general secretary Michael Gillespie said there is a “feeling that the industrial relations machinery of the country is not being taken seriously by one department [of Public Expenditure].
“Unions need to see some sort of wording from both the Department of Public Expenditure and the Cabinet that acknowledges the cost of living crisis and that public sector workers need a pay rise. Then we could go into talks.”