School secretaries set to strike later this month

School secretaries will stage a one-day strike on Wednesday, September 15th amid an ongoing dispute over their pay and working conditions.

Fórsa, the union representing school secretaries, says that they will gather in the capital for a national rally on the same day

Pickets will be placed on the Dublin headquarters of the Department of Finance and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), which the union is accusing of blocking implementation of a Government commitment to standardise pay and conditions of school secretaries.

Most school secretaries earn just €12,500 a year according to the union, and face irregular short-term contracts that force them to sign on during the summer holidays and other school breaks.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar gave a commitment in the Dáil last year to end the system of pay inequality.

Last July, the Department of Education offered an increase of 50 cent an hour after the dispute was referred to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), an offer dismissed as derisory by the union at the time.

The union’s head of Education, Andy Pike, said the education department’s failure to make the expected proposals to fully standardise pay and conditions for school secretaries and caretakers has left them bitterly disappointed as they face into another school year.

“Following Mr Varadkar’s 2020 Dáil statement, school secretaries and caretakers counted the Government among those who backed pay equality in our schools. But that is evidently not the case, School secretaries have been badly let down, and feel that industrial action is now the only option open to them,” he added.

“The staff affected are employed by individual school boards of management and are paid out of the ancillary grant provided to each school. As a result, they earn far less than the minority of school secretaries and caretakers who work in ETB schools and are employed directly on Department of Education pay scales.”

Mr Pike said the employer’s offer would still leave the majority earning about €12,000 a year less than their directly-employed colleagues. Aside from pay, the proposals contained no movement on standardisation of leave, sick leave and other conditions of service. Neither did they address access to an occupational pension scheme in a similar way to directly-employed staff, he said.

Athlone Cllr Aengus O'Rourke (FF) confirmed that he has spoken to colleagues at Government level to express his deep concern and unease at a situation which he believes is wholly unfair.

“We have a situation where the secretaries and caretakers in our mainstream schools are not receiving the recognition or the pay and conditions they were promised by Government some time ago,” Cllr O'Rourke stressed.

“Secretaries and caretakers are crucial to the running of any school, yet their average pay is a paltry €12,500. Many secretaries and Caretakers are forced to sign-on to social welfare during all school holidays, while all other staff enjoy full pay and conditions, including pensions, sick pay etc.

“To add insult to injury, secretaries and caretakers employed in ETB administered schools carry out exactly the same work, and are paid and treated as public servants in fully pensionable employment,” he continued.

The Athlone representative ended by saying: “I feel very strongly in fairness and equity in the workplace but as things stand secretaries and caretakers in many mainstream schools are not being treated fairly, and this needs to change. The Government can and must resolve this dispute by honouring the terms of the earlier agreement to regularise pay, conditions and pensions”.

Fórsa is currently balloting school caretakers as they are also disadvantaged by the pay inequality. They will join the 15th September strike if the ballot result backs strike action.