Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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166. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 226 of 15 November 2016, if he will reverse a pay deduction to some ASTI members who opted out of supervision and substitution duties before the Haddington Road agreement in view of the fact that some members have signed, opt out contracts in place (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38723/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Supervision and substitution duties are compulsory for all teachers since the Haddington Road Agreement. As part of the S&S scheme finalised at this time a limited group of teachers were allowed to opt-out of the duties in return for a pay reduction. Department Circular 0006/2014 states that with effect from the beginning of the 2013/14 school year, participation in the Supervision and Substitution scheme will be compulsory for all teachers, save for those who avail of the opt-out arrangement.

The ASTI directive instructed its members to withdraw from the Supervision and Substitution Scheme. The opt-out is an element of the S&S scheme and ASTI directed all members to withdraw from that scheme in its entirety. Therefore, the ‘opt-out’ provided for under the scheme did not apply to ASTI members who were subject to the directive while that directive was in force. ASTI suspended its directive following one day of withdrawal from the S&S scheme (on 7 November 2016). The S&S scheme is being operated by ASTI members since the date of suspension and accordingly, the opt-out is again being applied to ASTI members since that date.

Where schools were forced to close to students as a result of ASTI member teachers’ withdrawal from the S&S scheme, ASTI members who did not make themselves available for S&S will not be paid for those days.

It is normal industrial relations practice that, where workers in industrial action withdraw from core elements of their work, resulting in the closure of the workplace, those workers would not be paid for those days.