The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has strongly criticised the further cut in the salaries of new teachers announced as part of today’s review of allowances. The review recommends removal of academic allowances for new entrants to the profession.

TUI General Secretary John MacGabhann said:

“This latest cut will have savage consequences for those teachers at the point of entry to the profession, and will ultimately have enormous consequences in terms of who will be attracted to the profession.

This savage attack also runs completely counter to the Government’s oft-vaunted commitment to the knowledge society, as allowances payable for additional academic attainment by teachers have been slashed in what translates to a retrogressive tax on upskilling.

The status of the teaching profession has already been damaged by changes in recruitment mechanisms. Where once teachers applied for secure jobs, now new entrants to the profession are forced to apply for low numbers of hours with no guarantee of their services being retained for the next school year. Even after qualification, it still take several years secure tenure and even longer to secure it on full-time hours and 30% of second level teachers have contracts with less than full hours.

An emergency motion was passed at the union’s Congress this year committed to vigorously seeking a restoration of the single incremental pay scale. TUI, together with the other teacher unions, will now seek to devise an appropriate and comprehensive strategy in response to this profoundly damaging attack on the teaching profession.”