If the Government moves to make ASTI teachers redundant, the ASTI will immediately ballot its membership on industrial action, ASTI President Ed Byrne said today.
Mr Byrne said that there is an effective and cost efficient redeployment scheme in place for teachers and that making teachers redundant would have a negative impact on public funds.
“Currently surplus teachers are redeployed to schools where their skills are required. This represents value for money for the State and the tax payer. The threat by the Department of Education and Skills to make ASTI members redundant simply because they exercised their democratic right in a ballot is not only unnecessary, it will be significantly more costly for the State and ultimately for the tax payer.”
Mr Byrne said the threat of redundancies is another example of how the Government is using measures – including FEMPI legislation - to set aside normal industrial relations and punish trade union members for exercising their democratic rights
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