Dundalk IT and O Fiaich College lecturers set for strike action

The Teachers Union of Ireland will take strike action on Tuesday, February 4 in a long-running dispute over pay discrimination.

The Union nationality represents some 19,000 Teachers, Lecturers and Researchers in second-level schools, further education, and Institutes of Technology, including locally Dundalk Institute of Technology and O’Fiaich College.

The dispute has been ongoing since 2010 when the Government unilaterally introduced a reduced pay scale which saw new educators earning 14% less than pre 2011 recruits. Unions opposed the reduced pay scale, highlighting it equated to a pay cut in excess of €50,000 over the first 10 years of a new recruit’s career.

The controversial reduced pay scale has been the number one topic of discussion at the Teacher Unions Conferences since its introduction, with younger teachers annually highlighting the hardship imposed on them due to precarious employment and reduced wages. The TUI and other teaching Unions have consistently called upon the Government to restore all post 2010 recruits to the agreed pay scale. However, despite promises of action the Government have not restored equal pay.

In October 2019, TUI members voted by a margin of 92% to 8% to engage in a campaign of industrial action, up to and including strike action, on the issue, and the Union announced in November that it would take strike action in February unless the matter was resolved.

When announcing the upcoming strike action TUI President Seamus Lahart stated 
‘Regrettably, the commitment made by Minister McHugh last April that the issue of pay inequality would finally be addressed has not been honoured. We have exhausted every avenue open to us to bring this matter to resolution and have been left with no choice but to take strike action.’