TUI General Secretary Michael Gillespie addressed 500 delegates and guests at TUI’s Annual Congress in Cork today.
Some key extracts are set out below.
TUI – 50 years old
I want to go back 50 years to the Annual Congress held in 1973 where Congress decided to change the union's name from Cumann na nGairm Mhúinteorí, The Vocational Teachers’ Association, VTA to AONTAS MÚINTEORÍ ÉIREANN, The Teachers’ Union of Ireland, TUI. The name change reflected the organization’s increased role and scope. This was shortly after the rollout of free secondary education in Ireland, the creation of community and comprehensive schools and coincided with the expansion of curriculum offered in vocational schools.
Therefore, let us declare Happy Birthday; Happy 50th birthday to the TUI.
Recruitment
In 1973 TUI had 4,000 members
In 1983 6,984
In 1993 8,719
In 2003 12,314
In 2013 14,356
Now in 2023, including retired members, we have more than 20,500 members.
The bigger the union the stronger the voice. Workplaces without a strong union presence are incubators of bad and mistaken practice and represent a threat to our hard-won conditions of service.
Investment in Education
Challenges and issues across the education system, highlighted and exacerbated by the pandemic, are still cause for concern. The TUI continues to highlight these issues, identifying the resources and investment required to deal with them. The system must be ready when challenges arise in the future. To ensure that state of readiness, the lack of investment in the Irish education system at all levels and in all sectors must be reversed. For Ireland consistently to rank as the lowest or one of the lowest spenders on education in report after report from the OECD was never acceptable and is now intolerable. Education, as a key public service, the foremost driver of social mobility and equity, needs investment. It needs the investment to meet any and all of the many existing challenges and the flexibility to be ready to meet new challenges.
The Irish Education system needs consistent, multi-annual, increased and targeted investment. Government needs to invest in increased allocation and staffing to reduce student numbers in all classes, it needs investment to give Special Education Needs (SEN) and Additional Education Needs (AEN) students equality of opportunity and access, so that they have a fair chance. Many workplaces urgently need investment in infrastructure to create modern education facilities fit for the purpose of providing a high quality, inclusive 21st century public Education System for all our students whatever their circumstances or postcode. Such investment will give real hope for the future
Recruitment and retention
The TUI has warned over several years that a recruitment and retention crisis was building within the system. The current recruitment and retention crisis is the direct result of the bone-headed, failed policy of successive governments of attempting to make the education system do more and more with less and less. Not paying the piper but wanting the tune, played better, longer, inclusively and more melodiously – no doubt to enhance general wellbeing.
Factors that inhibit entry and incentivizing exit are as clear as day. The hidden work of preparation reflection and assessment that is over and above class contact is not recognized. This essential work, alongside all that is done to support and build relationships with students, takes time and resources which are not made available to teachers and other staff in our education system. The real work done and real time spent outside class time must be recognized for the good it does. We can have a world-class education system, but change is needed.
Adding to this and causing severe work overload are the bureaucratic and administrative demands, from all sorts of sources, placed on our members. This accumulating workload is unfair, excessive, and unsustainable. This work is rapidly colonising personal time, at night and at weekends. The workload issue must be dealt with in a meaningful manner if we are to retain our teachers and lecturers and maintain the quality we have in the Irish education system.
The TUI pre-Congress survey aimed at teachers shows that only 31% of teachers recruited post 2011 received full hours in their first year of teaching. Translated, this means that 7 of every 10 of those teachers had to make do with part-time work, fragments of a job, low pay, precarity. Only 13% of teachers received a permanent contract upon initial appointment, meaning that 87% had no credit-worthiness, could not hope to get a mortgage. 33% of teachers took three years or more to secure full hours and therefore a full-time salary. They would on average have been 28 years of age by that time.
This looks and feels like professional hazing, initiation by humiliation. It is unacceptable in any circumstances, never mind when there is also a cost-of-living crisis and a recruitment crisis. The remedy is simple - give new teachers and teachers we want to bring home full-time jobs with full-time salaries, so that they have some chance of meeting their financial commitments. To compete in this global market for teachers we need to reimagine the whole recruitment process for our schools.
To retain teachers and to deal with the Pastoral, Curricular and Administrative needs of our students we need more Posts of Responsibility in our schools. We have figures from the Department of Education that show the catastrophic drop, engineered by government, in the number of posts of responsibilities available in schools on the Department’s payroll.
In 2009 there were 3,730 AP1s. By 2022 that had dropped to 2,653 AP1s. That is a drop of 29%.
In 2009 there were 5,493 AP2s. By 2022 that had dropped to 3,106. That is a drop of 43%.
And this was during a period of time when student numbers have been rising sharply.
Unfortunately and shamefully, no numbers are available for the ETB sector – because, it appears, that sector doesn’t make returns. However, every indication is that the collapse in the number of AP1 and AP2 posts is at least as bad in ETB school as it has been in other schools.
Teacher participation in SEC
I want to use this opportunity to address an issue that is close to our hearts – the continuation of external assessment the State Examinations Commission for the state certificate examinations. All registered teachers have opportunities to work with the State Examinations Commission (SEC). This can be as an examiner in written, practical, and oral examinations at junior cycle level, in Leaving Certificate Applied and in Traditional Leaving Certificate subjects. Teachers can also be engaged as superintendents. The rate of payment has been increased in line with Building momentum increases but even more significantly due to TUI lobbying. We demonstrated to the SEC that the rates for SEC work had fallen below what was needed to encourage teachers to participate in the Examination system. As a result of our efforts, the rates have been substantially increased and are now attractive enough to make it worthwhile doing this work, especially if you consider the additional payments received upon completing the assigned marking.
Pay and the cost-of-living crisis
The restoration of the PME allowance was the final restoration that finally resolved the general issue of unequal pay, exactly 10 years to the day from its initial imposition by the government. The TUI’s resolute campaign had steadily reduced the gap to the point where the absence of the PME allowance was the major remaining deficit. However, promise after promise from all the political parties, Government and Ministers finally to resolve unequal pay led to nothing. It was you TUI second level teachers that gave up a proportion of 1% of your own money, to finally end the disgrace of unequal pay for teachers. You take full credit because you did this for your colleagues, your sons, your daughters, nieces, nephews, your neighbors, for your community, for the teaching profession. You did it because it was the morally right thing to do; you made no complaints because it was the right thing to do. We must never let our political masters forget the fact that teachers themselves finally solved the issue with their own money.
A successor agreement to Building Momentum will now have to be negotiated, and TUI’s strong position is that any wage increases must, at a minimum, match the applicable rate of inflation. A key priority in any negotiations must be to maintain the standards of living of our members in this cost-of-living crisis.
Technological Universities
At third level the establishment of the five new Technological Universities is still a work in progress. The TUI has an ambitious vision for the creation and evolution of a vibrant TU sector, and we will continue to work with those who share our determination to develop and build on the strengths, rich traditions and achievements of the technological sector of Higher Education. To achieve this ambition there must be unstinting practical commitment by the Government, DFHERIS and managements. The Technological University sector must be properly funded, resourced, and supported. The OECD report, released just before Christmas 2022, is just a report and is not a definitive road map to new contracts or the development of the sector. A lot of work will have to be done if change is to be implemented but it can only be done following engagement and consultation with and the approval and support of our TUI members in third level.
DKIT and IADT have not yet been included in this evolution of the TU sector. This is deeply disappointing to our members in the affected institutes and to our membership nationally. TUI has pursued this matter directly with Minister Harris and his senior officials on behalf of the two institutions and has facilitated meetings by members of the branches with Minister Harris. The two institutions must be brought into and accommodated within the TU structure. Additional resources far beyond what are currently available may well be needed to facilitate this.
Adult Education Tutors
In the case of Adult Education Tutors, the TUI has achieved improvements in their terms and conditions such as CID confirmation, the availability of statutory entitlements and access to pension schemes. However, a major outstanding issue remains. Despite the Chairman’s note, a Labour Court finding and agreement with the relevant Department, an offer of an incremental salary scale has not been forthcoming. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform now has control over that decision. Disgracefully, that Department still has not approved or made an offer, despite high profile commitments from members of the Government. However, we are hopeful, given the pressure being exerted on the members of the Oireachtas by the TUI and our continuous media campaign to highlight the situation of Adult Education Tutors, that an offer will be made soon.
Youthreach
TUI members in Youthreach are still awaiting a finalised version of an incremental credit circular which is part of a process of recognition of the valuable work that is done in Youthreach with our most vulnerable students. These continuous delays in processing legitimate industrial relations issues are frustrating to say the least for all involved and made worse by excuses from the Department.
Branch officers and activists’ delegates
Branch officers and TUI activists who are delegates here today are the irreplaceable core of the TUI. It is to you our members’ first turn for advice and support; you are the TUI. You and your predecessors have been the heartbeat of the TUI for 50 years. I want to thank you, one and all, for your truly exceptional commitment to the union and its membership.
Conclusion
The TUI is now, after the INTO, the second largest teachers’ union in the country, with over 20,000 teachers, lecturers, and other educators across second level, third level, further and adult education. It has a breadth of expertise and experience that gives us a unique understanding of the needs and dynamics of the Irish public Education system, an understanding that we will share with Minister Foley and Minister Harris, both of whom will address our Congress this year. In the year ahead, as in previous years, the TUI will strive to protect and represent our members and their interests effectively and professionally.