Teachers' strike goes ahead as pay deal is rejected
Secondary school teachers are set to resume pickets after union leaders voted to reject a pay deal.
The industrial action by 16,000 members of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland began last year when the teachers went on strike in pursuit of a 30% pay claim.
A series of rolling regional strikes was suspended at the end of January as the state's Labour Court attempted to resolve the dispute.
But ASTI's 180-member central executive committee has now voted overwhelmingly to reject that compromise deal.
The proposals were rejected by 151 votes to 10, with two abstentions.
Union president Don McCluskey said: "For well over a year now, we have almost been completely ignored by the government.
"We have tried everything at our disposal to get talks and it was only in the last while that talks have been initiated."
Referring to the proposed pay deal, Mr McCluskey said: "I read that document last night and I would say that in 30 years of trade union involvement, I have never read a more negative document."
A nationwide strike is scheduled for next Wednesday and, with five more walk-outs planned over the next three weeks, the state's leaving and junior certificate oral exams are in doubt.
The teachers' demands have so far been rejected by the government, which has insisted the issue can only be resolved through an existing national wage agreement.
