Teachers to begin work-to-rule tomorrow over pay dispute

Primary and secondary teachers across the country begin a work-to-rule tomorrow morning in a dispute over public sector pay.

Members of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) and the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) voted almost unanimously for the action.

The unions say the Government has failed to engage seriously on a new pay deal since the previous public sector agreement expired on 30 June.

From tomorrow, teachers will work only their contracted hours. They will not supervise children who arrive early or stay late, and all parent-teacher meetings must take place during school hours.

A full strike is planned for Wednesday 14 October, which would close all schools. INTO General Secretary John Boyle said he fully expects it to go ahead, and that a second strike is likely to be approved for 21 October.

Mr Boyle rejected Government claims that the unions are setting preconditions for talks. He said his union wants pay at the top of an agreed agenda.

"We simply ask for a different approach to pay. We didn't expect that the envelope would be given to us at the beginning of the talks, but we certainly expected to hear that members who are struggling across the public sector would get money for the second half of 2026," he said.

"We [got] no commitment, so therefore any action that starts on Monday morning in schools is solely at the feet of Minister Chambers and his officials."

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers called the planned action an unnecessary escalation and urged unions to enter talks quickly. He said the Government is willing to have a constructive discussion and will make provision for a pay deal in the Budget.

"The last time there was this scale of industrial action was in the context of pay reductions for public servants. We're actually discussing pay increases for public servants," Mr Chambers said.

The Social Democrats' acting leader, Cian O'Callaghan, said the Government should make the first move.

"Clearly this is a negotiation around pay, so the way to open that up is for the Government to make a pay offer to public service workers and then let them negotiate around that," he said.

"The Government have an allocation to do that. There's going to be an agreement sooner or later, so if this was done sooner it would minimise disruption."

With no talks yet scheduled, that disruption for parents, pupils and teachers could last for weeks.