Strike action in schools

SCHOOL managers have urged hundreds of secretaries threatening to take industrial action not to disrupt exam preparations or other school activities.

The school secretaries’ branch of the IMPACT union has voted strongly in favour of action over the imposition of pay cuts at the same proportion as those taken by all public servants. The union claims the cuts, beginning at 5% for those earning less than €30,000, are unfair.

The branch’s 650 members work in primary and second-level schools outside the vocational sector. The timing and form of any industrial action will be considered at the annual meeting of IMPACT’s school secretaries’ branch today.