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SCHOOL SECRETARIES AND caretakers are prepared to strike “for weeks, if not months” in order to get parity with their colleagues in the education sector.
Workers across the country began the week picketing outside schools on what was the third day of the industrial action, amid what they described as a lack of engagement from the Government.
One principal told The Journal that her school is already feeling the impact of the strike and said things could completely grind to a halt if it is not resolved soon.
Over 2,600 Fórsa members are calling for the Department of Education to classify them as public servants.
This would entitle them to public service pensions and other benefits enjoyed by teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs), including the same sick and bereavement leave schemes.
School secretaries joined the centralised public payroll in 2023 and received pay improvements, but they are still excluded from the Single Public Service Pension Scheme which teachers and SNAs receive.
The workers began their indefinite strike action last week after a day of talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ended without an agreement between the two parties.
The Fórsa union represents the secretaries and caretakers. The union’s head of education Andy Pike told The Journal that they have not had any engagement from the government since the talks at the WRC failed.
“They haven’t said anything to the WRC and they haven’t talked to us. There’s just silence. We don’t know what the government position is,” he said.
“We can only conclude the answer to the question of ‘would you give a school secretary and caretaker a pension?’ is no, and that they’re happy then for the strike to continue indefinitely, which it will.
We’re prepared to go on for weeks, if not months. We said that to them at the start.
Minister for Expenditure Jack Chambers has said that the Government wants to “encourage engagement” and that the Department of Education are available for further talks and are open to doing that at the WRC.
Fórsa also represents SNAs, who have not been balloted. Pike said the union has told SNAs that they should “go in and show their support at morning time when schools open, at lunchtime and home time”.
“Our guidance and advice to them has been that they’re not part of the dispute, and I think the teaching unions have said the same about their teaching members.”
He added that while Fórsa understands that they want to show support for their colleagues, “we’ve got no choice, we have to tell them that they have to go into work”.
However, some SNAs have joined picket lines in some parts of the country. At St Catherine’s Infant School in Dublin 7, all thirteen SNAs who work at the school refused to pass the picket on Monday, resulting in two autism classes having to close.
One of the SNAs, Niamh O’Reilly, told The Journal that they felt they had to join their colleagues because the situation is “really unfair”. She said that one secretary who works at the school was ill last year and received no sick pay.
“We assumed when they went on to that payroll that they were going to get a pension and sick pay like the rest of us, but they didn’t, and now they’re just being ignored. Nothing is being done.”
O’Reilly said the Department has informed the school tha staff joining the strike will not be paid as they are a break in service, but said they plan to meet to work out how they can take it in turns to join the picket going forward.
She said it was “sad” that the two autism classes had to close on Monday, adding that the group talked about it “for hours” before making their decision.
“We thought, ‘if I was in Charlestown Shopping Centre and the staff were outside Dunnes Stores picketing, I wouldn’t cross that picket to go in and buy bread.”
O’Reilly said that without the secretaries or the caretaker, jobs like doing the payroll for substitute teachers or putting the bins out will not be done.
They won’t last long without them. They really, genuinely are what keeps the school going.
Leona O’Connell, the principal of Presentation Primary School in Fermoy, Co Cork, told The Journal that her school is already beginning to feel the impact of the strike.
“We had somebody from the HSE looking for somewhere to drop the vaccination forms. They’re always dropped to our secretary. She then distributes them, collates them and sends them. None of that is going to be done,” O’Connell said.
“The toner went in the photocopier. That is not going to be ordered until the secretary’s back, which means there’s no photocopying services available. It’s the same with supplies, in terms of toilet roll, soap, hand wash.”
O’Connell said the secretary is also responsible for signing children in if they are late or out if they are sick, along with booking busses to go to sports or activities. Not having a caretaker is just as impactful to the day-to-day running of the school, she said.
“I think people probably just haven’t realised that bins are not going to be put out.
We are going to find a situation very, very soon in our school where we’ll be telling both children and staff that there are no access to bins.
O’Connell’s school has 250 students, 30 of whom have additional needs. Asked if she could see the school having to close as a result of the strike, she said “that point could come”.
“If we were to have a leaking toilet, if we were to have some remediation work that would impact on health and safety, the board of management would be the people that would make that decision, but it’s not out of the question by any stretch of the imagination.”
Despite these impacts, O’Connell added that all of the staff at her school, as well as those in the locality, are fully supportive of the strike.
A spokesperson for the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) said it stands “in full solidarity” with school secretaries and caretakers in their pursuit “of long-overdue pension parity and fair employment conditions”.
They added: “INTO will not be commenting on any guidance issued to members regarding the forthcoming Fórsa strike.”
Pike said the level of support shown to those on the picket line on Monday morning was “really heartwarming”.
“There are parents on the picket line or stopping off when they’re dropping the kids into school, principals, teachers. I was talking to the Chair of Board of Governors this morning on the picket line,” he said.
“It’s got universal support within the school community, and they really did need that show of support that they got when schools opened. It’s been very heartening.”
A Department of Education spokesperson told The Journal that it “recognises the important role” of secretaries and caretakers in school communities and has made progress in improving the terms and conditions of school secretaries in recent years, including secretaries’ pay being linked to increases in pay under public sector agreements and improved annual leave entitlements.
“Where a school employs a staff member as a secretary that staff member is not a public servant but an employee of the school, and responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school,” the spokesperson said.
“The Department of Education and Youth will continue to engage with all parties in the coming days including the Workplace Relations Commission, which remains available to assist with the resolution of this dispute. During this action all schools are expected to open for all students.”
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