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Minister for Education Norma Foley has said the Government intends to review levels of public sector pay amid demands from teachers’ unions for inflation-matching salary increases.
Ms Foley claimed the Government is very conscious of the increased cost of living and is willing to assist people feeling the squeeze.
She said Minister for Expenditure Michael McGrath has been “very clear” that a review of the Building Momentum Agreement – the most recent public sector pay deal – will take place.
Teachers’ unions are to demand inflation-matching pay increases at their annual conferences taking place this week.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast , Ms Foley said the Government has been doing everything in its power to react to the surge in inflation. She pointed to the introduction of the €200 energy credit as well as measures to reduce the costs of public transport, drug payments and fuel.
Ms Foley said members of teachers’ unions have a right to put down conference motions on myriad topics including possible industrial action.
“I want to take the opportunity to ensure them that Minister McGrath has signalled very clearly that he is happy to begin the review of the Building Momentum Agreement. Preliminary discussions have begun and there will be further discussion and negotiation in that regard.”
She also said that teachers will be made part of all conversations around proposed changes to the senior cycle at second level.
“All of the new subject specifications will be conducted in our network schools so that the teachers will in effect be co-authors or co-constructors of each of the subject specifications,” she said.
Meanwhile, the ASTI said teachers were struggling with the increased cost of living.
In an interview on Newstalk Breakfast, the union’s president Eamon Dennehy said every worker in the country is aware that the cost of living has gone up by an enormous amount.
“Probably by 6 or 8 percent in just one year already. Our wages have to match that. Indeed the wages of teachers have been depressed enough over the last ten or twelve years. We have a two tier payment system. What will have to happen here is that there will have to be wage negotiations about that.
“An awful lot of changes are made without negotiations. I think this time all trade unions, the ASTI included, need to be recognised as the people who represent their membership and should be talked to about changes for example to their working conditions etc. So we would be looking for that.”
He added that Ms Foley will be made aware of “key messages” at the ASTI conference in Cork on Tuesday.
“The key message to her will be that our voices need to be heard in our profession. The Minister is very welcome to our convention.”
On Monday, the State’s biggest teachers’ union warned the Government of potential industrial unrest unless teachers’ pay is increased to compensate for inflation.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation president Joe McKeown told delegates at the opening of its annual congress in Killarney that inflation is eroding teachers’ standard of living.
The push from the INTO and ASTI for a significant increase was also echoed by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) which meets in Wexford on Tuesday.
The Central Bank, which has raised its full-year inflation to 6.5 per cent, has warned that salary increases could results in a longer period of “harmfully higher inflation”.