.
TEACHERS’ Union of Ireland (TUI) members will protest against pay inequality outside Kerry ETB post-primary schools, FET Centres, colleges of further education and Institutes of Technology in which they work during lunchtime this Thursday, May 24.
Service to students will not be affected by the protest. The TUI say they are holding the protest to highlight continuing damage caused by pay discrimination.
Teachers and lecturers who entered the system since 2011 are on a lower rate of pay than their colleagues for carrying out the same work.
The say the pay inequality has led to a crisis in the recruitment and retention of teachers and lecturers and impairs the quality of service to students.
In a March 2018 survey of post-2011 entrants to teaching, 46% said it was currently unlikely or very unlikely that they’d still be in the profession in ten years’ time. If pay equality was to be fully restored, 94% said it was likely or very likely that they would remain in the profession.
They TUI says the only guaranteed way of ensuring the retention of teachers and lecturers and the recruitment of those needed for the future is to repair the professional integrity of teaching by restoring pay equality.
