ASTI conference: Teacher had to delay having children as illness due to pregnancy not covered

Irish Examiner

23-04-2025

A Limerick teacher says she was forced to delay having children because of pregnancy-related sickness, which is not taken into account in the sick leave scheme.
Speaking on a motion carried at the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) annual conference in Killarney, Julianne Butler said pregnancy-related sick leave 'should not be within the same category' as other sick leave.
The teacher, aged in her 40s, said she suffers from hyperemesis gravidarum, a condition which causes some pregnant women to experience excessive nausea and vomiting.
'From my very first day of knowing that I am pregnant, I will start to vomit and it will stay with me for my whole pregnancy.
So even when I'm 39 weeks, I am still vomiting.
"That means that I could spend weeks on a bathroom floor. I could be in and out of the maternity being on a drip just to try and rehydrate myself, so it obviously makes work very difficult,' Ms Butler told the Irish Examiner.
According to Ms Butler, this meant she had to 'delay' her family because she could not afford to go on extended sick leave.
'My children are 15, 12, and then I have a huge gap, and I have a six-year-old and a three-year-old. I couldn't have any more children between my second and third because I had accrued so much sick leave from my first two pregnancies,' she explained.
She pointed out that sick leave is 'judged the same', whether you're male or female — not taking into account pregnancy-related sick leave.
'My argument is that a man will never accrue pregnancy-related sick leave. He'll never have appointments or he'll never have that situation.
So for me, pregnancy-related sick leave should not be within the same category. It's totally unfair for them to be all lumped in.
'The Department of Education say that when you use up your sick paid days, you go on to half pay, and that was their attempt at gender equality.
"Whereas if you were a man and you had accrued all that sick leave, you go on no pay. And that's how they deem it to be equal in that sense. Whereas in reality, they should never be put in the same bracket.'
Four-year rolling sick leave
As teachers have four-year rolling sick leave, Ms Butler said she could not consider having another baby until she 'wiped out all of that four years' during which she carried sick leave.
In her late 30s, she had a miscarriage at 20 weeks, after which it took her another year to get pregnant.
I had the stress of, 'Oh my God, I've already accrued 30 or 40 days because of the miscarriage that's already going to be held against me'.
'You are worried about your money, about paying your mortgage, you're worried about paying the bills, your food, shopping, and all the rest, whereas you should just be worrying about getting through the day.'
During her fourth pregnancy, Ms Butler, who teaches English in Limerick Educate Together Secondary School, had to make arrangements with the cleaning staff — and asked for extra bin bags to be put outside her classroom.
'The ladies' toilets were too far away in my school, if I have to run out of class to vomit, I'm not asking somebody else to clean up after. But it was because I was forced into a situation where I couldn't take the time, I was running out of sick leave time."
She said throughout her pregnancy, her school was highly supportive.
'My principal and the support that I got within my school was amazing.'
Ms Burke's plea was part of a motion in which the ATSI sought to negotiate with the Department of Education with the aim of amending the sick leave schemes.