School secretaries are to stage a one -day strike in early January as part of a resumed campaign of industrial action over a controversial two tier pay system.
The workers represented by the trade union Fórsa had suspended industrial action in October to allow for talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
However the union said on Monday that an offer put forward by the Department of Education was “insulting”.
The union said the executive of its school secretary branch had approved a proposal to hold a national one day strike on Friday January 10th, 2020. It said this would be immediately followed by an escalated action under which school secretaries would resume a work-to-rule by withdrawing from work on public service systems and databases.
Fórsa said school secretaries would also refuse to carry out the functions of public servants.
The union maintained that an existing two-tier pay system resulted in most school secretaries earning just €12,500 a year, with irregular, short-term contracts that forced them to sign on during the summer holidays and other school breaks.
The union said that while a minority of school secretaries were directly employed by the Department of Education and had public service employment status, the majority have their pay and conditions determined by school management boards.
The union's head of education, Andy Pike, said the department had failed to bring forward any proposals on pay capable of resolving the issue: "The offer to school secretaries was 1.5 per cent. An offer we can only describe as insulting.
‘Respect and recognition’
“Fórsa left the Workplace Relations Commission negotiations having given a clear message to the employers that our campaign does not seek percentage pay increases. What we are seeking is respect and recognition for school secretaries through access to the same pay and conditions as secretaries in ETB schools. Regrettably the only way to increase pressure on the employer’s side is to escalate the industrial action.
“In the context of broader pay trends, the offer of 1.5 per cent is derisory and falls far short of what it would take to resolve a pay disparity that successive governments have allowed to fester for four decades.
“Our aim in this process is to ensure school secretaries and caretakers are afforded the opportunity to work in a system that properly reflects their huge value to the school community. This offer doesn’t even come close to achieving that goal, and it’s possible the Government has completely underestimated the resolve of school secretaries to get a meaningful result on this,” he said.
The union said that pay increases under the current public service agreement (which does not apply to grant paid school secretaries) came in at just over 1.75 per cent in 2019, while CSO figures showed average weekly earnings rose by 3.9 per cent in the private sector.
It said too that average economy-wide pay increases of almost 4 per cent were anticipated in 2020.
The Department of Education said the engagement at the Workplace Relations Commission on Monday was the latest in a series of discussions arising from a claim lodged by Fórsa in respect of the staff concerned.
“The matter as far as the management side is concerned is still being progressed at the Workplace Relations Commission where talks are ongoing. The Department remains willing to engage in discussions on the matter and would encourage the union to continue its engagement also.”
