AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of members (80 per cent) of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland have rejected the proposals for an extension to the Public Service Agreement.

The TUI, which is made up of post-primary teachers and higher education lecturers, announced the results of the first completed ballot on Croke Park II today. It said its members emphatically rejected the deal by a margin of more than four to one.

The turnout for the vote was recorded at more than two thirds of the union’s 15,000-strong membership.

President Gerard Craughwell said that after considering the LRC proposals, members “have spoken and they have said enough is enough”.

The TUI will now vote against the proposals at the meeting of the ICTU Public Sectors Committee next month.

“The TUI position is that it is not for the Public Services Committee to determine working conditions for members of unions who have rejected the proposals,” Craughwell added, indicating that members will not be bound by a majority vote in the ICTU.

“TUI members, in common with other public servants, have made a major, measurable and verifiable contribution to the country’s recovery,” he continued. “Teachers and lecturers are giving extensive additional productivity under the existing Public Service Agreement. This is on top of the pension levy and pay cuts which have reduced the take-home pay of serving teachers and lecturers by as much as 20 per cent.”

He said that while pay proposals remain a “big issue”, feedback to the unions has been about “the savage and unwarranted attack on working conditions and the quality of public education”.

The union’s executive will meet later this week to consider the outcome of the ballot. It will also hold its Annual Congress next week.

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