Vol. 542 No. 1
135 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on whether teachers need a basic pay increase to remove the gap between their salaries and the salaries of other graduate entry professions; and if he will negotiate an interim award to ensure parity for workers holding similar qualifications. [23508/01]
A detailed examination and comparative analysis of the pay of teachers generally is already under way through the benchmarking system. The public service benchmarking body was established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. The parties to that agreement accepted there was a need to find an appropriate way of benchmarking public service pay to the market to ensure that the public service is in a position to attract and retain staff and to ensure equity between employees in the public sector and the private sector.
The public service benchmarking body is an independent body presided over by a High Court judge. The composition and terms of reference of the body was agreed by the Government and public service unions. The body will examine and compare existing roles, duties and responsibilities in the public service and across the economy. One of the essential features of the benchmarking process is that it will look at all of the key service groups as part of one exercise and that there will be one comprehensive report. Previous history has shown the difficulty that arises from one group alone being singled out or when special claims are processed at different times in varying social and economic climates.
The public service benchmarking body has the support of the vast majority of the public sector unions as the most appropriate body to examine public sector pay, including teachers pay. The Labour Court also supported this position when examining the ASTI 30% pay claim earlier this year.
