Planned industrial action by school secretaries is premature and unwarranted, the Department of Education has said.
In a statement on Monday, the department said that work was ongoing to establish the full cost of the pay claim by school secretaries. It said it was open to further talks with the trade union Fórsa, which represents the staff concerned, when this process is completed.
School secretaries employed by individual school board of managements are seeking to be placed on the same public service pay scales as their counterparts who are employed directly by the Department of Education.
The secretaries will commence their campaign of industrial action on September 20th with a short work stoppage at the start of the school day.
The union said that they would subsequently undertake a “significant” work-to-rule . It said they would withdraw from work on public service systems and databases “on the basis that if they were not paid or recognised as public servants, they would also also refuse to carry out the functions of public servants”.
The union said the industrial action was expected to cause significant disruption to the administration of the schools sector without affecting students or parents.
Follow-on claim
The Department of Education said that last May Fórsa had formally tabled a claim seeking public service pay scales, year-round working patterns and access to a public service pension scheme for secretaries and caretakers who were employed directly by schools, and whose salaries were funded from State grants.
The department said this was tabled by the union as a follow-on claim from the current pay agreement for this group of staff which will expire in December. It said this agreement provided for a 10 per cent pay increase from 2016 to 2019 and a higher minimum hourly rate of €13.
“As is standard practice, the department must establish the full current cost of the trade union’s claim, including current pay rates and hours worked.”
“As the department is not the employer of these secretaries and caretakers a survey is running until September 20th to gather as accurate information as possible on the number of people in these positions in schools whose salaries are funded from state grants. “
The department said that Fórsa’s claim would be fully considered once the current costings had been determined on completion of the survey.
“The Department [of Education] is fully open to having further dialogue with Fórsa once this work has been undertaken and regards any industrial action while work is ongoing to establish the full cost of the pay claim as premature and unwarranted.”
Overwhelming backing
Fórsa said the dispute was over the refusal by the Department of Education to address a two-tier system which left most school secretaries earning about €12,000 per year under “irregular, short-term contracts that forces them to sign on during the summer holidays and other school breaks”.
The union said a minority of school secretaries were directly employed by the Department of Education and had public service employment status.
However it said the majority were hired by school management boards which determined their pay and conditions.
Fórsa said school secretaries had overwhelmingly backed industrial action by a margin of 94 per cent to 6 per cent in a ballot conducted over the summer.
The turnout was 68 per cent.
