Sir, – Brian O’Reilly (Letters, November 3rd) suggests that, for teachers, “the Government’s relentless demand for more ‘productivity’ remains the big sticking point” in the current public sector pay negotiations. I disagree. It is, in fact, the big banana skin.
The last pay agreement committed teaching unions and their members to “continuing to support the delivery of the Government’s key national reform plans and initiatives ... (including) Senior Cycle and Junior Cycle reform within schools (and) curricular and assessment reform”. Since then, teacher opposition to the new Leaving Cert reforms has been vocal and sustained. Yet implementation marches on, precisely because of this underlying commitment.
Nowhere in the public coverage of the current negotiations have I heard demands for the abolition of “Croke Park” hours, the removal of the additional superannuation contribution, the ending of the blind commitment to support curricular reforms or the full restoration of separate payments for substitution and supervision.
The danger for teachers is that, once the dust settles on any deal, a headline-grabbing pay increase will mask not only the continuation of existing productivity concessions but also the quiet introduction of a host of new ones.
RM Block
If that happens, it would be hypocritical of teachers subsequently to complain about anything – from Croke Park hours to curriculum changes – having effectively traded away their right to do so in return for a pay rise. – Yours, etc,
SEAN KEAVNEY,
Castleknock,
Dublin 15.
