A second teachers’ union will ballot members over strike action as part of a pay dispute.

The ASTI will ballot more than 17,000 secondary school teachers over the two-tiered pay structure affecting people who entered the profession since 2010.

Planned strike action by another teachers' union next month is already set to force hundreds of schools to shut days before the general election.

Members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) will hold a one day strike on the same issue on February 4. While ASTI members will not be striking on the same day, because their ballot will not have concluded in time, hundreds of schools will be forced to shut as a result of the TUI action.

Details of the ASTI ballot will be confirmed at a later date.

The union’s central executive council confirmed the decision to ballot members after a meeting in Dublin today.

“The ASTI took industrial action, including strike action, over unequal pay in 2016,” an ASTI spokesperson said.

“Since then there has been some improvement in the pay of new entrants to teaching. However, despite ongoing campaigning by the ASTI and the other teacher unions, unequal pay remains.”

ASTI president Deirdre MacDonald said it is vital that teachers on lower pay are put on parity with colleagues.

“It is unthinkable that in 2020 some teachers have inferior pay arrangements even though they are doing the same work as their colleagues in the next classroom.

“In taking industrial action in 2016, ASTI members lost pay and were further penalised under FEMPI legislation, and are still suffering the consequences. However, their action put unequal pay firmly on the agenda. In addition, the ASTI’s actions led to some gains for lower-paid teachers, but full pay equality remains to be achieved and we intend to achieve it.”

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