The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland is to consider proposals aimed at resolving an industrial dispute which caused the closure of hundreds of secondary schools earlier this month.

The Irish Times understands the proposals are broad-ranging and include plans to narrow the pay gap for new entrants by up 70 per cent, the resumption of payment for supervision and substitution duties, restoration of posts of responsibility in schools, and increased flexibility over the use of additional "Croke Park" hours.

On the issue of junior cycle reforms, there are assurances that no element of assessment for State certification purposes is or will be conducted by the teacher.

The ASTI  suspended its industrial action earlier in November after it agreed to enter mediation talks with the Department of Education.

The discussions concluded in the early hours of Tuesday morning and a document is being prepared outlining the terms of a potential agreement.

However, significant obstacles remain. The ASTI's 23-person standing committee and 180-member central executive committee will first need to consider the proposals ahead of any deal being put to the wider membership of 17,000 teachers.

Minister for Education Richard Bruton declined to comment on the developments except to say he hoped the talks would lead to a "good outcome."

"I understand that documents are being prepared for both sides. But I am not going to comment on the content of those," he said. "I know that people have put in long hours, on all sides, and I would like to thank them and the Teachers' Conciliation Council for the work they have put in to date."

Last week it emerged that the ASTI dropped its ban on its principals co-operating with contingency plans to keep schools open in the event that the union resumes industrial action over the coming weeks.

The move means the indefinite closure of some secondary schools, which affected more than 200,000 students last month, is less likely if the talks do not result in a successful outcome.

The ASTI’s withdrawal of supervision duties and strike action over new entrant pay led to the closure of more than 400 secondary schools on health and safety grounds following the mid-term break.

However, senior members of the union have warned that the ASTI may resume its industrial action if a significant deal is not brokered.

Although schools would still close if this happens, the prospect of indefinite closure is now much less of a possibility.

Contingency plans

While school management bodies had contingency plans to hire external supervisors to fill in for teachers, the ban on principals co-operating with the plans made them almost impossible to implement.

This is because, in the absence of principals, boards of management - who serve on a voluntary, part-time basis - had to recruit, hire and vet the supervisors.

In addition, school management bodies said a minimum of about seven weeks’ notice was needed to put supervisors in place.

The union only gave three weeks’ notice for the industrial action.

In a letter to school stewards last week by the ASTI’s general secretary Kieran Christie, he wrote: “As previously advised, ASTI has put schools on notice that they should have contingency plans in place in the event that the directive on supervision and substitution were to be re-instated.

“Standing committee considered the matter further at its meeting of November 17th and November 18th, 2016.

“It was decided that should ASTI re-instate the directive, ASTI-member principals and deputy principals will not be prohibited from operating contingency arrangements in terms of recruitment and assignment of personnel.”

‘Strategic mistake’

Some industrial relations observers said the move to include principals and deputy principals in the ban was a strategic mistake, as the indefinite closure of schools was unsustainable.

The fact that hundreds of schools were shut as a result of the union’s industrial action also meant thousands of ASTI teachers lost pay for each day of closure.

Despite the ASTI’s move to exempt principals, schools would still face an uphill task to hire replacement supervisors if the action resumes, given that schools have ceased the process of hiring them and would likely require several weeks’ notice to put the cover in place.

The talks between the ASTI and the Department of Education are being facilitated by the Teachers Conciliation Council, an arbitration body.

In all, the union is fighting four separate battles over issues such as working additional hours, supervision and substitution duties, new entrant pay levels and junior cycle reform.

The Department of Education is understood to be keen to ensure any deal will resolve all these issues.