Adult Education Tutors came from all over the country yesterday Wednesday 1 November 2023 to protest outside the Dáil and the Dept. of Further Education on Stephens Green.
The protest was for parity with colleagues doing the same work but with proper contracts.
Collective action by tutors in their long-running campaign forced the government to offer a public service contract and pay-scale back in May. This offer in itself was a national victory for Adult Education Tutors campaign, but it came as no surprise the initial conditions finally proposed in the contract were ‘rubbish’ according to the working tutors.
‘There was a fundamental failure in the contract proposal to reflect the work we do – and we have no expectation that the drastic changes necessary to make the proposal acceptable to us are
forthcoming,’ said James O’Keeffe, a representative of the campaign.
Yesterday’s protestors had a message for the government: ‘We haven’t gone away, we’re continuing to
organise and mobilise to fight for our demand. The demand is simple – parity with our
colleagues doing the same work. We need contracts that actually reflect the importance and the value of the work we do.
‘And we have message for colleagues – COLLECTIVE ACTION WORKS!
‘We wouldn’t even have a proposed contract if not for our campaign! We forced this from the government after years dragging their heels.’
Protestors acknowledged that protest alone won’t get what they want, and that they need to step up -and escalate- the campaign.
People Before Profit salutes this workers’ campaign and encourages all Adult Education Tutors across the ETBs to get involved, add your voice to our collective strength, join the discussion about how we win this fight.
