Updated, 22:47
THE UNIONS representing Ireland’s public doctors and primary teachers have published details of the draft proposals replacing the Croke Park 2 pay deal.
The Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish National Teachers Organisation are among the individual unions which have been offered sector-specific deals at the Labour Relations Commission
In the health sector, the proposals will affirm the government’s plan to comply with the EU’s Working Time Directive – which limits the working week to 48 hours – by the end of 2014, spelling the end of lengthy working weeks for junior doctors.
Overtime payments will continue, at time-and-a-half for workers under €35,000 a year and time-and-a-quarter for anyone above that amount. The Sunday double-time premium will be retained.
Recent entrants to the ranks of consultants will be exempt from the pay cuts for workers over €65,000, on the basis that they already earn up to 30 per cent less than their peers.
The IMO said the Government had also agreed to begin new investigations on how students graduating from Irish colleges could be encouraged to remain within the Irish health system instead of emigrating.
The union said it was satisfied that the terms of the agreement offered were better than those on the table in the original Croke Park 2, which the union had walked out of.
In the education sector, the abolition of the supervision ‘yard duty’ allowance will still go ahead – but teachers will instead be paid €650 a year extra from 2016-17, and an additional €650 a year extra from 2017-18 in order to counter the loss of that allowance.
The original proposals, which required individual teachers to cover for their colleagues on uncertified sick leave and to cover bereavements, have been amended so that teachers will not have to cover the first day of certified sick leave or bereavement leave.
The increment scale is also being adjusted, with the top point being increased for people who joined the profession in the last two years.
As with other sectors, workers on over €65,000 a year will face two six-month delays in the payments of their next two increments – an improved deal for workers when compared to the original deal, where the next increment would be delayed for three-years.
The INTO’s executive said it would meet tomorrow to discuss how the union would proceed with the plans.
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