Ahead of its Annual Congress, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has highlighted what it calls the continuing ‘crisis’ of casualisation in teaching and lecturing. Many teachers and lecturers have only fragments of jobs with no guarantee of being retained from year to year. The union is calling for any arising new hours to be given to existing part-time staff in the first instance rather than recruiting, and in some cases exploiting, additional part-time staff. TUI is also calling for a return to the practice of making initial appointments on a permanent basis. The union estimates that at least 30% of teachers are employed on a part-time basis, and that this proportion grows to 50% for those under 30. Many of these teachers struggle to get by and meet even the most modest of financial commitments.
TUI’s Annual Congress begins on Tuesday in Wexford.
Speaking today, TUI President Gerry Quinn said:
‘A common but utterly incorrect perception suggests that all Irish teachers are in full-time jobs and secure employment. In the second-level system, this bears no resemblance to what has become an increasingly bleak reality, and a similar situation exists in Institutes of Technology.
All teachers and lecturers should be allowed to earn a living wage.
Casualisation of the teaching and lecturing professions represents a crisis in Irish education, and this has been acknowledged by the Department of Education and Skills and successive Ministers.
Where once teachers and lecturers applied for full-time, permanent positions, for several years now they have been applying for fragments of jobs with no guarantee of being retained from year to year. These teachers experience income poverty, often struggling to make even the most modest of financial commitments. To make matters worse, those who entered the profession from 2011 are on a severely cut salary scale.
TUI estimates that 30% of second-level teachers are employed on a part-time basis, and that this proportion grows to 50% for those under 30.
The drift toward casualisation started before the recession and, perversely, employment laws intended to limit the use of part-time and fixed-term working became part of the problem. In addition, some local employers have sought to exploit the vulnerability of teachers in part-time or temporary employment. In some cases, it is very clear that the intention is to create competition for hours between young teachers by splitting jobs into fragments. Such teachers can feel pressurised into undertaking additional unpaid duties in schools.’
Effect on students
‘Casualisation creates instability for everybody in the school community, not least students who are often taught by a succession of teachers in a given subject area over the course of the Junior or Leaving Certificate cycles. In terms of consistency of provision, this is undesirable, unacceptable and damaging.’
Solutions
‘The crisis was explicitly recognised in the Haddington Road Agreement, which provided for the establishment of expert groups at second and third level to investigate the problem. The expert group for second level made significant proposals and these are in the process of being implemented. Although these measures are very welcome, have the full support of the Minister and go some distance in the right direction, they will not fully address the crisis.
The most effective way to address the crisis of casualisation is to make initial appointments on a permanent basis. It has been confirmed to TUI by the Department of Education and Skills that it is available to the local employer to do this within the approved teacher allocation to a school. Now the Department must intervene and make this happen.
Before the recruitment of additional staff, hours that become newly available must, in justice and in logic, be given to existing part time staff. This mechanism should be mandatory and directed by the Department of Education and Skills.
Another measure worthy of examination may be the employment of teachers to provide some minority subjects across a number of schools within a defined, reasonable geographical area. This would allow schools to offer a broader choice to students and would also allow these teachers to develop viable careers.
In addition to addressing the crisis of casualisation, TUI is campaigning for an end to the pay discrimination against teachers and lecturers appointed from 2011 onwards. The highest prioritised motion on pay at the union’s Annual Congress seeks an end to this unacceptable situation, which sees colleagues being paid at different rates for carrying out the same work. It is TUI policy that the case of these teachers and lecturers should be prioritised in any future pay deals. ’