The ASTI is to withdraw its ban on the new Junior Cert science course after an arbitrator board ruled that its action breached the national pay deal.
The union has decided to lift the ban rather than risk a situation where the 9.25 per cent pay increase due to members as part of the pay deal next January would be jeopardised.
The Teachers' Arbitration Board found that the ban breached the national pay deal as it represented a form of industrial action.
The finding is a blow to the ASTI, which decided at its convention earlier this year to ban co-operation on the new course. The union said its action was motivated solely by health and safety concerns for staff and students in dilapidated laboratories across the State. It said its stance did not represent industrial action.
But the Department of Education took a different view, arguing that the union was in breach of the pay deal.
Some in the Department also took the view that the ASTI was trying to "take on" the Government on a new front, after the collapse of its 30 per cent pay claim last year.
This charge has been vehemently denied by the ASTI.
The union said it wanted to see the report of the Government-sponsored Task Force on Science implemented; this calls for a €100 million-plus investment in science infrastructure.
But its case was dented when the chairman of the task force, Dr Danny O'Hare, signalled his unease with the ASTI action.
The Government will be relieved at yesterday's finding. The ambitious new science course, with its emphasis on practical work, is a key component in the battle to boost student interest in the sciences.
It replaces the much-criticised current course which is dominated by written work. In recent years only about one in seven Leaving Cert students have been opting for physics or chemistry.
In its finding, the board acknowledges that the ASTI action "arose from genuine concerns of science teachers that the introduction of the new syllabus ... would be, to say the least, unwise".
Last night Mr George O'Callaghan, general secretary of the Joint Management Body, which represents school managers, said he hoped the ruling would lead to a period of industrial peace and calm that secondary schools needed.
The TUI, which agreed to teach the new course, said it had also been successful in securing new commitments for modernised laboratory facilities.
More than 40 ASTI members teaching at Árd Scoil Rís in Limerick will take to the picket line today as part of a one-day strike. The action is being taken over the school management's failure to follow agreed procedures in relation to the operation of the school and its treatment of staff.
