THE Teachers' Union of Ireland general secretary has predicted that the provision of permanent full time teaching jobs would be a major issue at this year's TUI conference.
Mr Jim Dorney said the union's acceptance of the PCW proposals meant the ceiling on permanent appointments to vocational, community and comprehensive schools had been increased from 90 per cent to 95 per cent. The new permanent appointments would be made by the "conversion of existing temporary and part time staff" into permanent jobs, he said.
This, he claimed, "gave the green light" to the creation of permanent jobs.
In addition, permanent jobs had been secured for the first time, he said, in respect of VTOS training, schemes and traveller education. It was appalling that staff who taught the most educationally disadvantaged and the long term unemployed "are themselves disadvantaged through job insecurity and uncertainty".
At third level also, in the Regional Technical Colleges and the Dublin Institute of Technology, the union would be pressing for the conversion of part time jobs into permanent ones.
"For too long, part time teachers have worked in a perpetual state of job insecurity," Mr Dorney said. They were unable to plan their lives, including getting married, starting a family, or taking out a mortgage, he said. Permanent jobs for such people were long overdue.
