While most people have very little sympathy with teachers when it comes to pay, like everyone else, most teachers were hit very hard in the recession years, with some teachers losing up to 30% of their pay. On top of this, almost all allowances were cut and there were pay freezes. Furthermore, anyone who graduated as a teacher from 2011, were put on a lower pay scale than their colleagues. Not only were newer teachers screwed over by the government on pay, they were also screwed over by their teaching colleagues who voted in favour of the Lansdowne Park Agreement, as recommended by the teaching union, the INTO. Now that there’s an election coming up, it’s a chance for all parties to wake up to the inequality in pay.
- Fine Gael: no mention but online conversation suggests that they aren’t budging
- Labour: No mention
- Fianna Fáil: committed to restoring full equality of treatment for teachers
- Sinn Féin: all Teachers to get equal pay
- Green Party: No mention of pay expect that they will stop paying principals in terms of size of school
- Social Democrats: No mention
- Renua: No mention
- AAA/PBP: No mention in literature but Ruth Coppinger and Richard Boyd Barrett committed to restore pay equality to teachers on the radio and TV recently.
It looks like Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are the only two parties that care about removing the two-tiered system of pay for newer teachers.
