School secretaries protest over pay

SCHOOL secretaries have staged the first in a series of one-day stoppages in protest at their low level of pay which sees some earning less than the minimum wage.

Secretaries from across the country converged on Donegal to take part in the rally at the Radisson Hotel in Letterkenny, where they protested at what they describe as the continuing inequalities in their pay and working conditions.

At present, a two-tier pay system exists, where some school secretaries employed before the implementation of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress (PESP) in 1990 are paid directly by the Department of Education and Science.