LRA - suspension of industrial action
On Saturday, June 10th, an ASTI Special Convention passed a motion to suspend the ASTI’s industrial action on the Lansdowne Road Agreement and Junior Cycle Reform.
“That the ASTI pending the outcome of the upcoming public service pay negotiations suspend all industrial action relating to the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) and Junior Cert reform, provided that ASTI members are treated equally to other public servants who have signed up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA).”
In a ballot on the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 held in October, ASTI members voted to reject the Agreement by 51.5% to 48.5%.
Following the ballot, the ASTI’s Central Executive Council met on November 8th and voted to continue the union’s suspension of industrial action while it engages in new entrant pay talks along with the other public sector unions, including the INTO and the TUI.
The following ASTI directives are suspended:
Junior Cycle
As a result of the suspension of industrial action, ASTI members must co-operate with all aspects of the Framework for Junior Cycle.
Click here to view ASTI Junior Cycle page.
Implementation of LRA measures
Changes to ASTI members' pay
As a result of the suspension of industrial action the pay measures set out in the LRA are now being applied to ASTI members. These pay measures took effect from June 10th, 2017 (the date of the suspension of industrial action) and will continue to be applied unless the ASTI resumes industrial action on the LRA and/ or Junior Cycle reform.
Croke Park hours
The suspension of the ASTI’s industrial action means that all ASTI members must undertake the 33 Croke Park hours. With effect from the current school year, up to 10 hours of the 33 Croke Park hours will be available for activities as outlined in Circular 0043/2014.
Supervision and substitution
The suspension of ASTI’s industrial action meant that a further opt-in/out-out option was offered to ASTI members, in August, with a review in September for those not in a position to apply in August.
The following S&S opt-out / opt-in arrangements were made available:
Please note: there is no payment for supervision and substitution. The salary reduction for opting out is €1,769 and will subsequently change in line with changes to teachers’ salaries*. This has the effect of reducing pensionable salary and retirement lump sum, except where the teacher retires on or before April 1st, 2019.
*Teachers who previously opted out of S&S (i.e. prior to 2017 as provided for in Circular 0006/2014) will continue to experience a salary reduction of €1,769 regardless of future changes to teachers’ salaries.
Improvements for temporary/ part-time teachers
ASTI teachers can now access CIDs after two years. Teachers with less than full-time CIDs, but who have additional temporary hours, may become eligible to have those hours converted to CID hours after one year.
Teachers on less than full hours will be prioritised for teaching hours which become available in the school (subject to certain criteria such as the curricular needs of the school). This applies to continuous and temporary hours and aims to augment the hours of part-time teachers. (Previously this provision applied to TUI members only.)
Redeployment
ASTI members will have access to the redeployment scheme. This means eligible teachers will not be made redundant in situations where they are over-quota or where their school is closing.
Posts of responsibility
Discussions between the ASTI, TUI and the Department on the availability of new promotional posts announced in Budget 2017 are ongoing. Members will be updated as soon as possible.
