Teachers Strike May Be Considered Due to Covid-19 Safety Concerns

ASTI HAS said that strikes are an option on the table as it begins voting members for industrial action due to Covid-19 safety concerns in schools.

The secondary school teachers union said yesterday that a number of “key issues” had arisen since the schools reopened and are causing concern.

Issues raised include physical distancing in schools, provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), definition of close contacts, comprehensive testing and response times, provisions for high-risk teachers, and IT resources for students and teachers to facilitate remote teaching and learning.

When asked on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland if a strike is being considered, ASTI General Secretary Kieran Christie said it cannot be ruled out.

“Well, we want to keep the schools open and obviously the form of industrial action could be even a strike action that includes, but it can take other forms,” ​​he said.

Those decisions have not been made and will not be made for several weeks until the voting process is complete.

In addition to the issues listed above, Christie expressed particular concern about the exposure of teachers from at-risk groups in classrooms.

“Most especially the problems associated with teachers who are in your high-risk health category, who are operating in classrooms with maybe 30 students, and so on. In difficult conditions and obviously it is a very difficult position for them to be operating, ”he said.

He added that there have already been cases of Covid-19 in schools and teachers do not receive adequate information as to whether they are a close contact.

“For example, a case could be, as has already happened, identified within a school and nobody is sure what is happening. Everyone is likely to know that you have been in a room for more than the 15 minutes that would normally be considered the time frame for close contact. The lack of information and the anxiety that this generates in itself is a big problem for us ”.