This morning.
New Road, Clondalkin, County Dublin
Pre-2011 pay-scale teacher Neasa Moloney (top left) supporting her colleague, lower tier post-2011 pay scale teacher Sarah Kelly outside Colaiste Bride School on a day of action across Ireland by members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) over unequal pay.
It’s heartbreaking.
Everyone’s in tiers.
No school for thousands of students as TUI strikes over equal pay (RTÉ)
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Perhaps Nessa will agree to split the difference: she and her pre-2011 teachers can take a pay cut, and the savings can be passed on the newer teachers to bring their pay up to parity.
Imagine if you read a comment here which recommended they both drop to 0 and work for free. See how moronic that would sound, despite the numbers being equal? The reason is because the focus shouldn’t be on equality but on fairness.
Because that would be silly.
The pre-2011 teachers’ unions decided, with the government, to throw future teachers under the bus so that their generous pay and conditions would be protected. Bit unfair, but I can understand why they did it, they were acting on behalf of their members’ interests.
But not they want ‘the same pay for the same work’ – if they really wanted that, they would have never thrown their younger colleagues under the bus in the first place.
Exactly, they keep saying ‘equal pay for equal work’ but were happy not to have this back then. The older pay scale was unsustainable, so new teacher rates cannot be increased. I think the ‘meeting halfway’ is definitely the best approach. Not sure how many of the old teachers would vote for it though – they certainly didn’t the last time.
Fair play to the pre-11 folks getting behind their colleagues
are you having a laugh? the unions and their members (teachers) struck that deal to save any cuts to them at the time.
The pre 2011 teachers pulled up the drawbridge and now want to pretend that they care.
the only faux care they are showing is on the taxpayers dime.
The only fauxcare round here is you, baz
+1
nice one, keep sticking it to the tories
As pointed out above- these unions struck this nasty deal to limit the effect of cutbacks on their then current members at the expense of their future ones. ZERO sympathy unless the pre-2011 cohort pay their share for pay parity. Teachers get paid VERY well for what is effectively a part time job.
Imagine if we had this commentary where ti difference was the men got higher pay, and the women got the lower pay.
You may say this is a stretch, but it is a discrimination based on something arbitrary and outside of the individual’s control. So, no, it is not that different.
It’s not the same; unions will often try to argue for a higher rate of pay for group x, even though they are doing identical work to group y – that’s their prerogative.
What’s truly bizarre here is that the unions are arguing that the differential pay scale that they negotiated is unfair – of course it’s bloody unfair, it’s unfair by design! The unions had the opportunity to show solidarity with their younger colleagues by reducing the pay and benefits of existing teachers slightly to allow future teachers to enter under the pay and conditions – they chose not to. And now they are in favour of solidarity and are campaigning against their own deal – ridiculous…
I did not say it was the same, just not dissimilar.
The deal the unions brokered was the best they could get, and was supposed to be time limited, based on a return to the country being economically viable. That time has passed, but the Government has refused to bring the pay rates into parity. This is a breach of the deal negotiated, not by the Unions, but by the Government. That is why they are protesting.
No Union will negotiate to reduce the pay and benefits which were hard won and grudgingly allowed in the first place. To suggest so is idiotic. The payscale and benefits existed, and were forced down by the Ministry for new entrants. It is nonsense to suggest the resolution is to reduce the existing scales for those who already were entitled to them to match the lesser entitlements of those forced to accept them.