There had been hopes that this series of rolling one-day stoppages across Dublin and the regions could have been avoided. But rather than move towards agreement over the New Year, the Government and the ASTI became even more polarised. And rather than dealing with the central issue of the teachers' 30 percent pay award, the concentration has been on the pay docked from their pre-Christmas pay packets for days on which they withdrew supervision.
Efforts by the Labour Relations Commission mediator are continuing with the effort of bringing the sides together for talks, but some sources believe that even if the teachers and their Government paymasters do agree to negotiations, divisions within the ASTI itself could make progress virtually impossible. In the first round, Dublin will be hit by the strike tomorrow; Leinster, excluding Dublin the day after; Munster on Thursday and Connacht/Ulster for one day next week.
The last informal contact between the Labour Relations Commission mediator Tom Pomphrett and the ASTI was late on Friday evening. The most immediate demand now from the teachers is the repayment of money docked from them before Christmas for days on which they withdrew supervision. The decision to dock the money was taken by Cabinet. The Department of Finance, in particular, is strongly opposed to refunding the money without conditions.
