The country's largest teacher trade union has disputed assurances given by the Minister for Education yesterday regarding teachers in the early stages of pregnancy who take pregnancy-related sick leave.
Yesterday, Norma Foley said that such a move, by an unvaccinated teacher or SNA, would "not impact going forward on any individual sick leave, should they need to draw that down in the future".
She said that pregnant teachers who take this leave will suffer no adverse consequences in terms of overall sick leave entitlement as a result.
School staff in the early stages of pregnancy are expected to return to classrooms to work with unvaccinated children in the coming days, even though they themselves are not allowed to avail of the Covid-19 vaccine until 14 weeks gestation.
Yesterday, the minister said that with the agreement of their doctor an individual in this position could stay out of the classroom by availing of Pregnancy Related Sick Leave provisions, and that they would suffer no adverse consequences.
This advice seemed to contradict the current understanding of how the PRSL scheme works. It stipulates that pregnancy-related leave is reckonable in calculating the point at which a worker on sick leave drops to half pay.
However, responding to a query by RTÉ News on this point, a department spokesperson reiterated the minister's view, stating that: "If you avail of sick leave in the future, all previous pregnancy related sick leave is discounted, and your balance of sick leave days will reflect what it would have been if you have never taken any pregnancy related sick leave".
This evening, primary teacher's union the INTO has said it does not concur with the statement that pregnant workers who take pregnancy-related sick leave will not be adversely affected.
In a statement, it said "pregnant workers could find themselves on half pay after a period of time as a direct result of taking additional leave".
"Any worker, including a pregnant worker, in the public service can avail of three months (90 days) sick leave at full pay. Once exceeded it goes to half pay. This is clearly set out in circular 54/2019 and public service sick leave guidelines".
The DPER leaflet states: "After maternity leave if you have gone over normal paid sick leave thresholds you will have access, at half pay, to the equivalent number of days taken on PRSL."
The union's Deputy General Secretary Deirdre O'Connor said: "We don't believe that they can guarantee that no teacher will be adversely affected by being moved to half pay, if they take the advice of the Minister for Education and seek to avail of Pregancy Related Sick Leave provisions".
The union said that pregnant teachers in the education space are being treated less favourably compared to colleagues elsewhere in the public service.
"They are essentially unable to access vaccination and facing the prospect of returning to a workspace with pupils who are unvaccinated."
The union reiterated that teachers in this position are not sick. "They are just not eligible for vaccination", a spokesperson said.
