Why do teachers dispute the two-tier pay scale?

Actually we compared our holidays before.

I get 27 days holidays plus 10 bank holidays.

I get medical insurance, life insurance, pension, accommodation allowance, meal allowance etc

When I work overtime I get double hours off whenever i want.

so im happy with my conditions.

Cant remember the exact figure. But i think it was 6 weeks off in the summer, a week at 3 mid terms usually spanning a week with a bank holiday. 2 weeks at easter and 2 weeks at christmas (spanning bank holidays too).

They are always working when i call over in the evenings. They are never home before I am. They cant have flexy hours.

They cant just decide to go on holidays for 2 weeks in say September or May, that i can (or could before covid anyway, but hopefully we will be back there.)

I think prefer my deal tbh. Sure they get a few more days off than i do if i dont take toil, but they are contrained in when they can go on holidays too. I wouldnt like that.

Also i can think of nothing more stressful that being stuck in a classroom all day with a heap of kids and only a half hour break. Definitely not for me.

I used to think id do it for the extra holidays, but my holidays are close enough to theirs and can be taken at will. Id hate to be constrained to the most expensive times to go on holiday too.

They arent unhappy with what they are earning. Everyone else seems to be unhappy with what they are earning though.

I would be unhappy if i was earning what they earn to be honest. That 8 months compared to 11 months that you did is just totally wrong numbers from what I can tell.

I certainly work no more than 10 months. And people with only 20 days hols plus 10 bank holidays would only be working 10.5 months at most.

I think people dont take everything into account properly when they compare other peoples jobs to their own. Everyone always thinks someone else doest work as hard as they do. Its just a moan fest really if people are honest. Irish begrudgery if you like. And we are all familiar with that. Its bred into us.

when the only option you have is sign the deal or dont work in the sector, id imagine you d sign the deal

There are other "inequalities" in the public sector. People taken on before 2013 have better pension arrangements. Or various other benefits/contributions (e.g. PRSI) that differ depending on whether taken on before or after 1995.

This is natural in any environment, public sector or private sector. Economic conditions change over time. It's not easy to change something in the contract of existing employees, but there's nothing wrong with new contracts containing different conditions.

If we want true equality, increments shouldn't exceed inflation. Otherwise newer entrants are earning more than older entrants did at the same point of the scale. But it seems equality is only desirable when it's pushing pay upwards.

Agree with everything you say here. As a teacher I am particularly embarrassed at the behaviour of our unions. Threatening to strike over the vaccines was laughable....Looking for a bonus for the work over Covid is particularly shameful. No one will listen to them on proper issues including the pay restoration for younger teachers and class sizes. It's the old boy who cried wolf story that they seem to forget from their own schooling days. They are painting a negative picture of teachers with the waffle they continually come up with

Ah I missed having a thread where the usual suspets could have a go at teachers

It would be basically the same as any professional job. I mean my hours are 9-6 in my contract, I don't think I have ever done that, it is normally 7-6. There is not a chance that say secondary school teachers are doing courses for the entire summer. I mean lets be realistic. I remember you in a thread at the beginning of the pandemic claiming you were working from 4am until 11 at night. From my experience with own primary school age children, they got half an hour zoom a week (a teacher led chat with each other) and a few exercises off twinkl.

You lost me after the very first sentence. Lol

Ah most do not work consistently longer hours in the evening, my wife is one as are many of my friends (primary).

Also those courses, which mostly consists clicking buttons on a laptop and letting things run while doing other things give them up to additional 5 days off a year.

It is interesting the amount of people whose knickers get in a twist over someone doing a job in a way that does not suit their idea of how they believe it works.

Those courses when done properly are not just pushing buttones but sure anyways congrats on finding a teacher who never does work outside of school and belittilng your wife's jobs and CPD to just pushing buttons, she must be so proud