Teachers' unions are predicting a crisis in Northern Ireland schools as the result of new legislation, which they claim could see pensions slashed by up to a third.

Members of the Ulster Teachers’ Union, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, the National Association of Head Teachers, Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the NASUWT are seeking an emergency meeting with the Assembly’s education committee after a “stormy” meeting with the Department of Education on Wednesday.

Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council chairperson Avril Hall-Callaghan, from the Ulster Teachers’ Union, said: “The Department of Education is trying to rush through regulations in June which will impact on schools this school year with no time for teachers to properly plan for the consequences.

“This is simply not acceptable and we are calling on our politicians to block the legislation going through the Assembly.”

Under new arrangements, teachers may lose up to a third of their pension and it is feared that fewer older teachers are likely to leave teaching early in order to save the job of a younger colleague, potentially exacerbating the problems of teacher recruitment.

Ms Hall Callaghan continued: “Schools will be left picking up the pieces. We are calling on the Minister to reconsider and defer any legislation until we can negotiate a managed change so that teachers and boards of governors of schools can plan their workforce changes accordingly.”

Tony Carlin, from the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, said: “Already young teachers are having difficulty finding jobs, with less than a third of those who have qualified in the last three years actually being appointed to schools.”

The existing early retirement scheme allows teachers towards the end of their careers to access their normal pension early, but any incentive to do so was already removed last year.

The current scheme for education administrators who are losing their jobs gives them up to an additional six and two-thirds years’ pension and up to two years’ salary as a redundancy payment.

Teachers are being told that under the sudden change this year they will receive a reduction of up to 30% of their pension if they go early — the unions say this is “a glaring inequality”.

The five teachers unions — ATL, INTO, NAHT, NASUWT and UTU — had requested a meeting with the Education Minister some time ago but to date, they say, there has been no response.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said: “The Teachers’ Superannuation Consultative Committee is the established forum for consultation with the teacher unions on matters relating to the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme. Members of the Committee were first made aware in February 2006 that action was required to control the escalating costs of the Premature Retirement Compensation Scheme (PRCS); and PRCS has been included on the agenda and discussed at all meetings of the committee held since June 2006.

“Consultation closed on May 15 on draft regulations which will bring teachers' premature retirement provisions broadly into line with arrangements in Scotland and in England and Wales, where similar changes were made over a decade ago. It is important to stress that the Premature Retirement Compensation Scheme has not been withdrawn and employers still have available all the options which previously existed.”