TUI’s Executive Committee is recommending that members vote to accept the proposed Department of Education and Skills/TUI agreement of 2016 which addresses a number of issues of key concern to TUI members. These are issues which had not been addressed by the LRA.
The Executive Committee has also decided in relation to a concurrent ballot, to recommend that, in the event that the proposed Department of Education and Skills/TUI agreement is not accepted, members vote to engage in industrial action, up to and including strike action, and encompassing withdrawal from productivity commitments which arose under the Croke Park Agreement and the Haddington Road Agreement.
Ballot papers will issue from TUI Head Office on Tuesday, May 17th 2016 and must be returned to auditors Deloitte by 5pm on Monday, May 30th 2016.
Separately, a TUI News Ballot Special will issue to all workplaces (Click here to download).
Effectively, acceptance of the proposed agreement would mean that TUI members would continue to co-operate with and not to repudiate the relevant collective agreements. The Haddington Road Agreement (HRA) expires on 30th June 2016. Therefore, from 1st July 2016, the only relevant collective agreement that will apply will be the LRA.In summary, if the proposal is accepted, TUI members will be covered by the LRA from 1st July 2016.
The proposed Department of Education and Skills/TUI agreement covers issues such as lecturing workload in Institutes of Technology, casualisation, the usage of the ‘Croke Park’ hours at post-primary and issues in Further Education.
In addition, the crisis regarding new entrant pay remains a critical priority of TUI. It has been clarified that being covered by a collective agreement such as the LRA would allow the union to use a precedent set by a recent decision to consolidate an allowance previously paid to firefighters into their pay scale. The DPER acknowledges that this development has clear precedent for other grades covered by the LRA, including teachers. A note in relation to the issue of new entrant pay can be accessed at this link.