Furious teachers to vote on industrial action
More than 60,000 teachers and lecturers will be balloted on industrial action over the pension levy row.
Three unions, representing primary- and second-level teachers, have announced separate ballots, while the executive of the Irish Federation of University Teachers will meet next week to discuss the issue.
Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) president Don Ryan said that branch meetings had been packed to the rafters with members furious with the Government's "flawed scapegoating" of the public service.
"There is palpable anger among teachers and lecturers that the pain of the current economic crisis is not being felt among all workers," he said.
In the case of the ASTI, members will ballot on up to two days of industrial action to be taken in co-ordination with other public service unions.
General secretary John White said public sector workers had suffered a double whammy of the pension levy and non-payment of increases promised for later this year.
His INTO counterpart John Carr said the "blame for any industrial action in primary schools which may follow lies on the shoulders of the Government, which has unilaterally targeted public servants for pay cuts and failed to reopen social partnership talks".
The IFUT said the levy had caused "massive degrees of resentment and anger".
General secretary Michael Jennings said that from his contacts in the human resource departments in the various universities, it was clear that they are totally confused about how the levy will be implemented.
"The only thing they seem sure of is that the Revenue Commissioners have instructed them to commence deductions of the levy in March," he said.
Meanwhile, further reforms and implementation of action plans in the universities are likely to be put on hold. The Education Branch Committee of SIPTU has decided it was no longer credible to continue to operate partnership at local level when the Government and the employers groups had unilaterally cancelled the National Wage Agreement in both public and private sectors.
- John Walshe
