THE TEACHERS’ UNION of Ireland Executive has voted unanimously to reject the new proposed public sector pay deal.

In a statement this evening, the TUI said that the Executive would be recommending to its members to reject the deal.

Commenting after a meeting, TUI President Joanna Irwin said it would be unconscionable to recommend that its members accept the deal.

Irwin said the union acknowledged “the pay restoration elements” in the proposed deal.

“However, an unwinding of the unacceptable, unfair and inequitable two-tier pay system was the key priority for TUI on entering the recent negotiations,” she said.

“Wherever and whenever possible, we vigorously pushed the issue forward.”

‘The draft proposed agreement would have the effect of blocking further progress for at least three years,” she said.

At a time when schools are struggling to attract teachers for an increasing number of subjects due to more lucrative options in other employments, the process of full pay equalisation requires urgent acceleration, not delay.

Earlier, Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Paschal Donohoe said the deal with public sector unions is “fair to workers and taxpayers”.

The deal reached between government and the union on the new draft pay agreement will see pay restoration for the vast majority of public sector workers.

A representative of another trade union Siptu said on Today with Sean O’Rourke that their key objective to protect jobs from being outsourced has been satisfied by the new draft pay agreement.

But he said that they went into the agreement with a long list of demands, so not all of them have been achieved.

The TUI’s membership will be balloted on the agreement in September.

“The Executive Committee will be strongly advocating that they reject it,” said Irwin.

Read: Public service pay deal is ‘fair to workers and taxpayers’ – Donohoe