School secretaries have voted in favour of industrial action in protest at pay cuts introduced by the Government.
The trade union Impact said that the school secretaries had voted by a margin of 72 per cent in favour of the action on foot of the decision by the Government to introduce a five per cent pay reduction since the beginning of the year.
Impact assistant general secretary Brendan McKay said that the union's divisional executive committee would now consider proposals "for the appropriate industrial action by the school secretaries as well considering other means to achieving a reversal of the pay cut".
He said the 17,000 school secretaries affected by the cuts were employed by individual schools and VECs around the country.
"They are not on the department's payroll but are indirectly funded through grants from the department. They include school secretaries, caretakers, cleaners, administrative staff, school completion programme staff and any staff employed directly by a recognised school or VEC," said Mr McKay.
"The Department instructed the employers to impose a pay cut on the same scales applied to public servants in last year's budget. This imposed a cut of 5 per cent of gross salary on those earning less than €30,000."