The INTO has admitted that teachers beginning a work-to-rule “will cause some difficulties” for parents.

Around 70,000 members of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) will reduce their hours, amid unhappiness with the Government over pay. 

It means teachers will only work their core hours and no longer supervise children before or after school. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, INTO General Secretary John Boyle defended working to rule, on the grounds that Irish teachers are overworked. 

“You see Irish primary teachers do the most hours in the world in terms of pupil contact hours,” he explained. 

“Then they're on standby for 43 hours to supervise the playground and the mid-morning break and cover for teachers who are absent, because the Government won't provide a substitute.”

Parents walk their children to school. Picture by: Nick Ansell/PA Wire/Alamy.com. 

Insurance companies have warned schools that only teachers can supervise children on school grounds. 

It means that parents will be required to arrange alternative childcare before and after school, when their children are typically looked after by teachers. 

“We won't be doing the Croke Park hours that were introduced in the austerity period - there's 36 of those,” Mr Boyle continued. 

“We won't be doing the parent-teacher meetings outside school hours or the staff meetings. 

“So, there are additional hours that teachers have been giving for free and, in our sector, it's been reported that the biggest impact is probably going to be because the teachers won't be out parading the playgrounds before the school bell goes as has been happening for the last 15 years. 

“That will cause some difficulties.”

The last public sector pay deal expired in June and negotiations between the Government and unions have failed to produce a new one. 

It is, Mr Boyle argued, an “absolute disgrace” that the agreement has lapsed and the fault lies squarely with the Government. 

“In terms of the dispute itself you know over the weekend, we've heard spin from ministers saying that the trade unions set preconditions for pay talks,” he said. 

“I mean that is an absolute lie, how dare they? 

“We went into exploratory discussions about pay talks and Jack Chambers has been saying, throughout the last while, that he wants the exact same kind of deal that he's got since the austerity period in 2015.

“We want to talk about pay because people… they're all struggling really really badly.”

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has called industrial action unnecessary, noting tomorrow’s budget will include a pay deal for public sector workers.

Main image: Children walking to school with their parents. Picture by: Jonathan Goldberg / Alamy Stock Photo