Unless the Government provides a written undertaking to admit school secretaries and caretakers to the public service pension scheme, strikes at schools countrywide will proceed from Thursday, Fórsa members have said.
At a pre-strike trade union meeting in Dublin on Tuesday night, more than 200 secretaries and caretakers heard that talks with the Government on Wednesday morning would come to nothing without a written undertaking “to start a process to determine when and how” pension “equality” for the Fórsa members would be achieved.
More than 2,300 school secretaries and some 500 caretakers at primary and secondary schools are due to strike. A rally will take place at 11am on Thursday outside the Department of Public Expenditure.
Some 2,000 schools will be affected by the action, which has received 98 per cent backing from union members.
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Some schools may be forced to close, particularly as the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland has stated that it is supportive and sees the “validity and justice” in the case of the secretaries and caretakers.
Speaking at Tuesday night’s pre-strike meeting, Fórsa assistant national secretary Shane Lambert said the union was not asking teachers and special needs assistant unions to strike, but was asking that they not undertake the work of secretaries and caretakers, which was outside their regular duties.
Fórsa head of education Andy Pike said, “decades of political engagement, promises and goodwill have failed to deliver pension justice, and the campaign by Fórsa members has not yet heard a single political voice raised in opposition to securing appropriate terms for this group of workers”.
Mr Pike said the Government policy had “locked out several generations of school staff” from secure income in retirement.
“We haven’t changed our stance and our stance is to avoid industrial action,” said Mr Pike. “They [the Government] need to give us a written commitment to start a process and the subject matter of the process. The objective is to determine how and when secretaries and caretakers are admitted to the public service pension scheme, not if. And unless that condition is met, the industrial action cannot be called off.
“If they ask us to pull off the strike without giving us an agreement that guarantees access ... we can’t call the strike off. I hope that’s clear.”
Thursday’s rally at Merrion Street will be followed by a march from Ely Place, Hume Street, along St Stephen’s Green to Dawson Street, into Molesworth Street and on to Leinster House. Teachers who cannot attend the march were asked to picket their own schools.
