Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

34. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will commit to equal pay for all teachers regardless of the date they started working in view of recent school closures due to industrial action; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35194/16]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Discrimination in employment is illegal. There was a long struggle, going way back to the 1830s in the United States and right up to the 1970s in this country, for equality in employment and to make it unacceptable to discriminate against any category of person. In recent weeks, however, teachers angrily protested and took strike action because the Minister refused to commit to the basic principle of equal pay for equal work. It is very simple, will he commit to that principle?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We dealt with a similar question just a short time ago from Deputy Paul Murphy. I explained to him that-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I heard the Minister.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----the way in which teachers are employed involves increments so that they are not paid equal amounts. It depends on their experience. One teacher could earn up to €60,000. However, a person recruited last year will under the deal I negotiated see an increase of €6,700 in their pay to €37,700 in January 2018. As Deputy Boyd Barrett is aware, during the crash there were changes in public service pay and to the pay of new entrants. We have used the opportunities presented by the talks relating to the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road agreements to negotiate changes. Under those negotiations, I have restored three quarters of the lifetime earnings for new entrants who were affected by the change. I have no doubt that the issue of pay for new entrants will again be on the agenda in the context of a successor agreement. We will sit down with unions across the public sector, not just with one union whose members are outside the Lansdowne Road agreement. We must address the issue in a way that is fair to all trade unions and to all those who were impacted upon by the changes to pay for new entrants. That is the approach we will take and it is the approach that the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, has outlined.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is not very helpful to engage in a disingenuous response to a straightforward question about increments. We all know that there are increments. There have always been increments in the public sector and people move up the pay scale. The issue is that there are two different pay scales. In fact, there are three different pay scales for people who have exactly the same training and experience. The Minister should not try to blur the issue with an untruth. The question is why teachers with the same experience and, possibly, who are the same age as their counterparts are on a different pay scale. Teachers earn different amounts for doing the same job, working in the same schools and teaching the same classes. Some teachers get between €6,000 and €8,000 less for doing the same job. That is just straightforward discrimination. Over their lifetimes, the difference could be as much as €200,000 - the cost of a house. How can the Minister stand over that discrimination? Will he commit to end the discrimination and inequality for teachers?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As I explained to the Deputy, during the recession restrictions were imposed on the pay of new entrants. That applied right across the public service. It is not a matter solely for teachers. That is an issue that has been tabled within the context of the Lansdowne Road agreement. We sat down with the teaching unions that signed up to that agreement, namely, the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI, and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, INTO, and negotiated on the basis of their agenda. As a result of those negotiations, we have closed the gap to effectively three quarters of the lifetime earnings. The scales have now been merged at certain points so that they are identical for particular parts of the career. I have no doubt that pay for new entrants will be an issue in the next pay round and we will again sit down with all of the trade unions and seek to negotiate the issues - along with other demands they might have - in the context of a successor agreement. We are now negotiating with the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland, ASTI, in the Teachers Conciliation Council to seek to resolve that and many other issues that have been raised.

I say to Deputy Boyd Barrett, although he might not like to hear it, that we must strike a balance. For example, carers did not get an increase for eight years but this year we were able to give them an increase. We must balance the resources we have available with the different demands, rightful demands for pay restoration but also rightful demands for investment in health, housing and homelessness, for which the Deputy will also articulate a need.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister should not give the money argument. There would be money available if some vulture funds and super-profitable corporations were made to pay their taxes. The issue at stake is discrimination. The Minister referred to negotiation. What is there to negotiate in terms of ending inequality? There is nothing to negotiate. It is fair enough for one to negotiate pay increases and other measures but why is the Minister using inequality as a bargaining chip in respect of teachers or other groups of public sector workers? It is fundamentally unfair. The Minister does not get the point. He should not be using it as a bargaining chip for future negotiation. He should acknowledge that it is pay apartheid. It should be illegal. Any other category of discrimination such as against women, LGBT people or racial minorities is illegal, yet the Minister has managed to impose arbitrary discrimination in employment - which is illegal for every other category - on the basis of whether one happened to come into a profession before or after 2010 or 2011. Is the Minister going to end the apartheid?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is worth pointing out to the Deputy that differences in pay for new entrants to those who are already working in the area for a considerable period are not unheard of in other parts of the economy and it is not confined to the public service - would that it were. The reality is that there have been big changes in the way people are paid in the private sector and one of those features has been lower entry rates for graduates. I am sure Deputy Boyd Barrett speaks to graduates and is aware that the typical entry rate for graduates is quite low and competitive at present. I recognise that in the recession difficult decisions were taken, including a reduction in the pay for new entrants. That was seen as a way of being able to bring some people in, albeit at lower pay. We recognise that it is an irritant for members of the public service but we sat down and negotiated with those members - people who have committed to the Lansdowne Road agreement - and we have restored substantial amounts of that money. I recognise that the issue will be on the agenda for a successor agreement and we will continue to negotiate with public servants who have taken a lot of cuts and experienced difficulties in order to manage the issue. We must have regard to the broader context in the sense that we have other responsibilities to meet as well.