ASTI > News > Campaigns > Campaign against the pay cuts

 

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  • Pay Cuts - Tell your TDs how you feel
  • ASTI action against Budget 2010
  • Budget 2010 - What it means for teachers and education
  • ASTI reaction to Budget 2010

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Pay Cuts – Tell your TDs how you feel

WE MUST SHOW OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES THAT WE ARE A SERIOUS FORCE IN NATIONAL AND LOCAL ELECTIONS.

Contact details for TDs including emails are available at www.oireachtas.ie. (scroll down the home page to the icon Useful Contacts).

  • You will not be voting for candidates who do not state their opposition to the pay cut.
  • Your family income is down by €xx because of the decisions of this Government (see below for How the Pay Cuts Affect You). 
  • You are angry that the Government pulled out of talks with the unions prior to Budget 2010, despite the fact that the agreement being discussed would have delivered the required payroll savings.
  • Teachers and other public sector workers are sick of carrying an unfair burden to clear up the mess of failed government policy and greedy bankers and speculators.

Please participate in this lobby and encourage your colleagues to join in too.

You can help by:

  • Visiting your local TDs
  • Sending them an email
  • Writing a letter
  • Making a phone call  

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ASTI action against budget 2010

Directives to members
The ASTI has issued a number of directives to members instructing them not to engage in certain school activities. These directives remain in place for all members as part of the campaign against the pay cuts.

Click to view Directives issued to members.

Click here to see a statement from ASTI Standing Committee condemning Budget 2010 and detailing a campaign of opposition to the Budget measures.

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Budget 2010 - what it means for teachers and education

How the pay cut affects you 

With effect from January 1st teachers' basic pay will be reduced by:

5% on the first €30,000 of basic salary
7.5% on the next €40,000 of basic salary
10% on the next €55,000 of basic salary. 

Posts and other allowances will be reduced by 5%

Click here to view further details and a table of gross deductions, as included in an extract from the Annexes to the Summary of 2010 Budget Measures, published by the Department of Finance.

Revised pay scales will be published as soon as they are available. 

Net income reduced
The table below shows net income loss for teachers as a result of public sector pension levy; increases in income and pay levies and public sector pay cuts. These calculations are based on basic salary and do not take allowances into consideration.

Basic Salary

Income reduction due to Budget 2010 pay cut

Approx. reduction in take home pay due to pension levy; health, income levy increases; Budget 2010 pay cut

30,000

          5%

                  €3,000

40,000

       5.635%

                  €4,250

50,000

          6%

                  €5,000

60,000

        6.25%

                  €6,500

70,000

        6.42%

                  €8,100

 

Pensions

  • Existing pensions of teachers have not been affected by the budget.
  • Teachers who retire in 2010 will not be affected – their pensions and lump sum will be calculated on the basis of their pre-pay cut salary.
  • The budget is silent on what happens to teachers who retire from 2011 on, so we have to assume that their pensions and lump sums will be calculated on the basis of post- pay cut salaries.
  • New entrants to the public service, including newly appointed teachers, will be subject to different pension arrangements including pensions to be passed on average earnings and a later retirement age.
  • There will be a review of pension parity with the likelihood that pensions will be increased by the consumer price index in the future as opposed to by percentage salary increases applied to teachers.

 

Sick Leave

  • Change to uncertified sick leave arrangements from 30 days to 7 days in the voluntary secondary sector (effective from 1st September, 2010)
  • No change in the requirement to provide a medical certificate


Education

Budget measures relating to the education service include:

  • 500 additional teachers at primary and second-level over the next three years.
  • Additional 330 second-level teaching posts from September 2010 to ensure no further increase in pupil-teacher ratio
  • No change to capitation grants
  • Restoration of certain grants (e.g. grant for school books)
  • School buildings allocation cut
  • Inservice budget cut
  • Reduction in allocations to education bodies

Click to view the Education Budget 2010.

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ASTI Reaction to Budget 2010

Click here to see a Nuacht issued in response to Budget 2010 measures.

Click here to see recent press statements in reaction to Budget 2010

Statement from ASTI General Secretary in reaction to Budget 2010

The decision by the Government to unilaterally impose a pay cut on public sector workers including teachers for a second time this year has been strongly condemned by ASTI General Secretary John White who has stated that it will have a damaging effect on public services.

“Teachers have suffered a cumulative pay cut of approximately 17% this year including an average 6.25% pay cut in today’s Budget, a pension levy of approximately 7.5%, and increases in health and income and levies which were applied to all workers in 2009. This means the average teacher is being subjected to a swingeing diminution in their standard of living.

“Changes to the pension scheme for public service workers will make it much more difficult to recruit talented people to the sector from now on. Public sector pensions have always been seen as deferred earnings by workers.

“In addition to this teachers and other public sector workers were subjected to a campaign of vilification prior to today’s Budget pay cuts.  All of this does not bode well for the future of our public services.

“Budget 2010 indicates that the Government believes quality public services are not important to ordinary members of the public including parents, children and young people, pensioners, and workers.”

Mr White added that spending on education must be seen in the context of savage education cutbacks introduced since Budget 2009 and Ireland’s appalling record for funding of second-level education: “At second-level only one EU country – the Slovak Republic – invests a lower proportion of its GDP per capita on second-level students than Ireland.”

An emergency meeting of the ASTI Standing Committee has been called to consider reaction to the today’s pay cuts.

“The Government will have to live with the consequences of these pay cuts,” concluded Mr White.

Click here for a statement from the four teacher unions in reaction to Budget 2010.