Now is the time for the trade union movement to raise the call for shorter working hours, longer holidays and earlier retirement - with of course no loss of pay. The achievement of early retirement and a shorter working week would have many benefits - reducing stress and pressures in the workplace, giving workers more time for leisure activities and creating work for those who are presently written off by the system. In 1994, five executives at Allied Irish Bank gave themselves an average wage increase of 162,500 per annum each. When Matt Russell - the legal officer in the Attorney General's office who was responsible for the delay in responding to extradition warrants for child sex abuser Fr. Brendan Smyth - was forced to take early retirement earlier this year he was given a golden handshake of 138,000.
Government ministers can qualify for full pensions after only three years of service.
Teachers have nothing to apologise for in looking for early retirement. It is an issue which should be taken up by the trade union movement as a whole. It is demonstrated by the magnificent support for the Dunnes Stores strike, and the occupations at Sunbeam and the Irish Press. As management push ahead with redundancies, yellow pack jobs, contract working and casualisation, workers are pushing back. When your back is against the wall you have to push back or be squashed.