TEACHERS WHO HAVE taken up places on the JobBridge scheme have been criticised by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO).
The union reminded its members in their monthly magazine that there is a directive in place instructing union members not to participate in the JobBridge National Internship scheme because they feel it is “exploitative of newly qualified teachers”.
The directive relates only to teaching positions on JobBridge, though they said that some roles advertised with other titles “were clearly designed to recruit a qualified primary teacher to a teaching position”.
Teaching positions
In the June issue of the magazine, In Touch, they said that following an “extensive consultation” with members and discussions at an INTO Branch and District Officers’ Conference in 2011 it was decided they would not to support the JobBridge scheme for graduates.
The scheme is viewed by INTO as being exploitative of newly qualified teachers.
Since May 2013, the union says 28 complaints against 22 members have been received and are being processed under Rule 104 and 105 of the INTO Rules and Constitution.
“These complaints have all been made by members alleging that an identified INTO member breached the INTO directive. In all cases, conciliation was unsuccessfully attempted to bring about a resolution of the matter,” they stated.
They said five of these cases have been heard by the Arbitration Board with four scheduled for June.
They said that a letter of reminder about the directive was sent to schools in May 2013.
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