More than 2,300 school secretaries at primary and secondary schools around the country and 500 caretakers have voted to embark on an indefinite strike when schools return from the summer break in August if a dispute over pensions is not resolved, their trade union has said.
Fórsa today said its members in the sector had voted by a huge margin – almost 98 per cent to 2 per cent - in favour of taking action over the issue which centres on their exclusion from the public service pension scheme to which teachers and special needs assistants have access.
Fórsa said it will serve notice of the action on schools in the coming week and “if the issue is not resolved then there will be no caretakers to open or close the schools and there will be no secretaries to do all of the vital work they do on a daily basis”.
“Quite what the impact will be is hard to say because we assume there will be continency plans made but the support our members receive from their colleagues in the schools and from parents will also be a factor,” said the union’s head of education, Andy Pike.
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He said the union would be available for “serious talks” in the coming weeks.
“These are committed professionals who contribute to the successful operation of every school, and they should be entitled to the same pension rights as their colleagues across the public service,” he said.
The pension issue has been a point of contention since a wider dispute regarding the status of the school secretaries was resolved two years ago. Talks about standardising the terms and conditions of the caretakers have been continuing.
In a statement, the Department of Education said Minister Helen McEntee recognises the “vitally important” role of secretaries and caretakers.
It said the position of school secretaries improved in terms of pay and leave entitlements when they were added to the department’s payroll after a 2022 agreement. The agreement that facilitated this did not bring public service status and so they did not have access to the public service pension scheme, it said.
“The granting of such status is not a matter that any one department can decide unilaterally,” it added.
