Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022
487. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Education if she will provide a report on the progress in relation to school secretaries and caretaker terms and conditions; and when it is expected that a resolution will be reached. [11793/22]
View answerSchool secretaries and caretakers are valued members of our school communities and my Department is fully aware of the vitally important role played by them in the running of our schools.
The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools receive assistance to provide for these staff under grant schemes. Where a school employs a staff member to support those functions those staff are employees of individual schools and responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school.
The Department with school management bodies have been engaging with Fórsa on a claim on terms and conditions for grant-funded school secretaries and caretakers. On the 27th of October 2020, under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), an understanding was agreed on a pathway to progress the issues. Several key strands were identified, and a phased approach was being taken to the development of proposals.
On the 24th February, following a series of engagements at the WRC, a package to settle the claim was proposed which Fórsa have agreed to recommend to its members. A ballot will now be undertaken and we await the outcome.
The main elements of the package offered include, in recognition of the invaluable work carried out by school secretaries, moving their pay rates to a scale which is aligned with the Clerical Officer Grade III pay scale on a pro rata basis according to a secretary’s current working pattern. This process will provide for pay increases (backdated to 1 September 2021) to school secretaries who choose to move to the new terms. It also provides for lower-paid but longer serving secretaries to be placed higher up the salary scale.
Secretaries may also choose to receive additional pay to ensure they no longer need to apply to the Department of Social Protection for payment of benefits for periods when they are not working due to school holidays. Proposals have also been made in relation to issues surrounding to annual leave, maternity benefit and sick pay.
This offer relates only to school secretaries presently. As set out in the framework agreement of 14 September 2021, while there is agreement in principle to take the same approach to the consideration of appropriate pay and conditions of grant funded caretakers there remains a deficit of data on working terms and conditions of such staff. Should the proposal be agreed and an implementation plan put in place, intensive engagement will begin on regularising the pay and conditions of grant funded caretakers.
I welcome Fórsa’s decision to ballot their members on this agreed suite of measures for staff who are the beating heart of our school community. This important step forward is the result of great co-operation on the part of all concerned, and a generosity and willingness to come to the table to engage in discussion and find the pathway forward. This agreement is further acknowledgment of the excellent and often unheralded work carried out on the ground by secretaries and caretakers in our schools.
