Industrial action to be taken by school secretaries

School secretaries are to take industrial action later this month over the Department of Education’s refusal to address a two-tier pay system.

The secretaries in dispute will begin their industrial action on Friday, September 20, with a short work stoppage followed by a work to rule. They will refuse to carry out certain functions because they are not paid or recognised as public servants.

Their action is expected to cause significant disruption to the administration of the schools’ sector, without affecting students or parents.

Most of the secretaries are earning just €12,500 with no entitlement to benefits such as sick pay or pension rights.

There are about 3,500 school secretaries, but just 10% are paid directly by the department, on salaries varying between €24,000 and €44,711 a year.

The rest — the vast majority — have their pay determined by individual school boards of management, with some forced to sign on for unemployment benefit over the summer holidays.

Fórsa announced today that 94% of school secretaries backed industrial action in a national ballot conducted over the summer. The turnout was 68%. There are about 900 school secretaries who are members of Fórsa but only 630 were balloted because they are directly employed by schools and are in dispute with the department.

The ballot was held after talks broke down earlier in the summer. Fórsa said department officials refused to discuss proposals to address the 41-year-old two-tier pay system.

The head of Fórsa’s education division, Andy Pike, said school secretaries were reluctant to take industrial action but had been forced to do so after decades of inaction and injustice.

“They welcome the many pledges of solidarity they’ve received from politicians of all colours, but these are totally disconnected from the reality of the department’s position, which is to constantly stall and disengage,” he said.

School secretary Kathleen O’Doherty said around 90% of school secretaries were locked out of the regularised pay system. “They have low pay, no holiday pay, no sick pay, no real job security, certainly no occupational pensions, and no access to public service salary scales,” said Ms O’Doherty, who called for a new model reflecting the responsibilities school secretaries perform.