Write to your local FF TD

TheDriver

WE see that FG and Labour only want to use us as a scapegoat for cutting PS money to spend elsewhere. But what about FF who are not facing into supporting a minority govt. In light of the circular the other day on increments, I think we should all write to our local FF TD now, before they meet to discuss the programme document etc. They need to know what we are thinking and the unfairness we are facing.
I have drafted a letter below, please feel free to add to it.

Dear Mr.

When your canvassing team visited my household prior to the election, I was delighted to hear that you were aware and sympathetic to the savage cuts and treatment of public servants over the last number of years. Hence it was with great pleasure that me and my family voted for you and delighted that you got elected.
It is fair to accept that the country was in financial trouble and we all saw cuts to salary, take home pay etc but 8 years later, it is of great concern to me, my family and to the whole teaching profession that we are still being targeted for financial cuts.
I wish to alert you to the Haddington Road agreement which my profession accepted and this is outlined in circular CL15/2014, CL0036/2013. Along with all the tax hikes, USC, indirect taxes and other measures that all PAYE workers endured, we also got the pension levy and public service pay cuts over the years. This agreement sought to give direction to the future and saw 3 major issues for me: I had to supervise yard duty for free (previously ca. €1600 pa), my increments increase over a longer period of time and because some of my colleagues are “high earners”, a further pay cut which results in further money taken from salary [CL0036/2013). All of these were apparently justified due to the FEMPI legislation passed in 2013. This circular states that when the agreement ends on 30th June 2016, measures will being to add yard supervision money to our payscale, pay cut for being a “high earner” is restored and increments come back.
In a time of prosperity in Ireland and a return to a hopeful future, I now find myself looking at a new Dept Education circular published last week CL0030/2016. This has upset me and my colleagues. We have kept all sides of our agreement under Haddington Rd but because we decided not to sign up to a new agreement, the Dept of Education, under a Minister with no mandate to govern, issued a circular that affects my pay and extends the penance we have endured for the last number of years – My increments are now frozen until further notice (CL0030/2016) and now we are concerned that yard supervision payments may not be added to the payscale (in contravention of CL0006/2014 and has been stated that there is no intention to give a €600 payment in July that we are scheduled to get), the pay cuts for being a “high earner” may continue (in contravention of CL0005/2014). It is true to say the last coalition sought to destroy the public service and places no value in the quality of staff they employ. Furthermore, all this seems possible under financial emergency legislation passed in 2015 when in fact, a financial emergency no longer exists as witnessed from the current budget. This circular demonstrated the distain that the Government has for public service workers – we kept our side of the Haddington Road agreement and the Govt should keep theirs and not kick the bucket down the road through another agreement without honouring the current agreement: who would trust any organisation who goes back on their word and the many circulars above state the various promises which should be upheld.
I ask you and your party to not ignore public servants and to ensure all these unfair measures are constantly bestowed upon us as our profession gets more and more disheartened.
Best wishes in your career as TD and delighted to see FF back in our constituency.
Yours Sincerely,

gaiscioch

Good stuff, TheDriver. I know you're focusing on the money, but if I had the temperament to be eloquent in the face of this government's patently sham conception of "reform" I'd add in my abject rejection of being forced to stay behind after school to do class preparation work that I can, and always have done, on my own time. Don't even mention the consistently time-wasting staff meetings.

I would say how across Ireland teachers are forced to endure these utterly pointless, inflexible hours, hours which in effect put an entire professional class on detention. Not only do they serve no purpose for the teacher, they offer zero - and I do mean zero - contribution to any genuine effort to improve education in Ireland (a reform which obviously does not exist other than in the press releases by Seán Ó Foghlú, releases which are uncritically accepted by breathtakingly lazy and partisan journalism such as displayed in this article). These forced hours are the antithesis of reform. They are ineffably inefficient, and when the withdrawal of teachers from extracurricular as a direct result of these Croke Park hours is considered, they are enormously counter productive. Under this government's "reforms" sitting talking nonsense after school carries a higher value than volunteering to help kids after school, during hours that suit you, because they're struggling in your class because the ability range is so large that their needs are not met. That this government's Nineteen Eighty-Fouresque Newspeak "reform" never tackles this chaos in classrooms as a result of such a huge range of unsatisfied abilities, tells us everything we need to know when answering the question: is this government genuinely interested in reform?

Add in the teachers across Ireland with young families who are forced to stay behind and do these hours when little lives need to be cared for and we're getting somewhere near conveying how implacably and resolutely opposed teachers with busy, productive and meaningful private lives are to the repeated humiliation that are the Croke Park hours.

doc11

gaiscioch wrote: »

Add in the teachers across Ireland with young families who are forced to stay behind and do these hours when little lives need to be cared for and we're getting somewhere near conveying how implacably and resolutely opposed teachers with busy, productive and meaningful private lives are to the repeated humiliation that are the Croke Park hours.

It's of no concern to your employer how many children you have. There's no job comparable to the family friendly nature of teaching between decent pay, short hours and holidays that coincide with child, career breaks, full paid maternity leave, child and spouse pension. But anyway using someone else child to get out of the odd meeting after school is beyond pulling a straws. I guess some are going to have chose between becoming a full time socialite or "humiliate" themselves teaching/CP hr:rolleyes:.

TheDriver

Lets not get bogged down in detail, whats important is that we all write to our local FF TD. Its easy to go around in circles but we need to be proactive, each and every one of us and its our elected representatives that choose who gets cuts and who doesn't. So lets let them know................

mirrorwall14

Done. Except they replied calling me by my surname as if it was a first name despite the fact that that would make me a boy not a girl as my first name implies (both were in the signature).
Inspires great confidence in me

derb12

"delighted to see FF back in my consituency" ??!?

Since when are they the good guys? Wrecking the economy, introducing croke park hours and pension levies ... have we such short memories?

evolving_doors

derb12 wrote: »

"delighted to see FF back in my consituency" ??!?

Since when are they the good guys? Wrecking the economy, introducing croke park hours and pension levies ... have we such short memories?

FG couldn't even be bothered with education, as it was twice tokened off to Labour, will it be auctioned off again?.
I'm no fan of FF in general either btw, but the EPSEN act under Micheal Martin was something of a seachange...!.
And yes .. the 'NEW' Junior Cert was Batt o' Keeffe's doing, although it took Ruairi to make a complete hames of it.

TheDriver

You need to massage the ego too. Not liking the mention of FF supporting landsdowne rd though.