VEC staff to face cut in holidays after FAS scrapped???

ToadVine

From an article in the Irish Independent 7th January 2013 http://www.independent.ie/national-news/vec-staff-to-face-cut-in-holidays-after-fas-scrapped-3343766.html

Apparently some VEC staff who work in "further/adult" education will have to give up their summer holidays as part of the Government's decision to scrap FAS. This means PLCs, VTOS, etc. The changes will not affect the summer holidays of primary or secondary teachers.

From the article ...

"In an interview with the Irish Independent, Junior Minister Ciaran Cannon said one of the issues that had come up was that VECs shut down in summer but FAS did not. He said that under the new model, training courses would have to be provided "all year round". "We hope to be able to achieve compromise through a process of negotiation and conciliation to bring the two models together," he said. FAS director general Paul O'Toole confirmed negotiations would take place with unions about getting more "flexibility" from these VEC staff over their summer holidays. "It's one of the challenges that we have but I absolutely do not think it's insurmountable," he said."

So what does this mean? Will the TUI stand for this? If this is allowed, are the Summer hol's of primary/secondary school teachers next in the firing line?

I'd be very interested to hear opinions on this, and whether anyone thinks this is just more kite flying or something that could really happen.

spurious

VEC teachers have 6 weeks holidays if they signed Memo v.7 - anything else is by local arrangement.

Many VEC teachers, in prisons and detention centres etc. already work the summer months.

Chris68

Most Adult Ed/ Further Ed VEC teachers are unemployed over the summer currently (and xmas, mid-terms, Easter, bank holidays, ...).

whiteandlight

I really don't mind losing holidays but I would want have some flexibility in choosing my holidays even if it was only 5 days. I'm trying to book a consultants appointment for the mid term break at the mo. I really shouldn't hang on that long but as a bin permanent staff member I can't afford to get a sick cert for it

Chris68

Don't forget that the spring mid-term and part of Easter are now ear-marked for "snow days" so you may need that sick cert at the end of the day anyhow!

whiteandlight

True but at least ill have shown I tried!

Corkbah

I thought they simply re-named FAS to something else ... are they actually cutting jobs ? they should start with the management instead of teachers. (frontline staff)

ToadVine

I am currently a tutor in VTOS with a CID for the last 9 years where we've always had the exact same holidays as the secondary school sector.

Can I now be required to work more weeks over the summer in line with the proposal in the op?