Teacher unions agree motion on vaccine and potential industrial action

The three teachers' unions have agreed a joint motion on vaccine prioritisation to debate at their annual conferences.

Unions have criticised the recent change to the vaccine roll-out plan, implementing an age-based model of sequencing.

The government says this will mean vaccines can be delivered faster over the next few months. However, the change essentially removes a ‘key workers’ cohort that had planned to vaccinate some people based on their occupation.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) and Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) congresses are taking place today and the three unions have agreed a joint motion on the issue.

In a statement, the three unions said:

“The motion will seek to commit the unions to work together to demand vaccine prioritisation for teachers. Should that fail, the motion will mandate the unions to explore any and all options, up to and including industrial action.”