Strike fear in Northern Ireland if holiday increase demand is not funded

A conglomerate of unions is calling for teachers’ holidays to be the norm across the public sector – and then be a template for the private sector.

They are calling for 10 weeks’ of paid leave to be the norm. The idea has met with cross-party approval at Stormont, but MLAs say that it cannot be funded without cash from London.

The conglomerate says there should be holiday parity across all departments, bringing other employees up to teacher entitlements.

“Parity does not mean cutting teacher holidays, because it has long been accepted that the pressures are such that they deserve such breaks. It is about bringing stressed workers in other sectors such as transport up to the same leave as a teacher,” said Bill Lessons, of the conglomerate. “It is also about synchronising holidays so that ultimately, everyone, parent, teacher, child, is working at the same time and off at the same time.”

Both unionist, nationalist and other political leaders say that while the plan will cost billions of pounds it is up to the Tory government to step up to the plate with funds. One MLA said: “We are all right behind this idea.”

The plan has deliberately been unveiled in the holiday period, to highlight workers on shift on this Easter Monday, the first day of April.