Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 May 2024
48. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Education if she will investigate concerns around the inability of a school staff member to access incremental credit (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22132/24]
View answerMy Department is providing a payroll service for school secretaries with effect from 1st September 2023. The provision of a payroll service is part of a package agreed with Fórsa, the trade union representing school secretaries, following a series of engagements at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The agreement outlined in Circular 0036/2022 has provided for a revised salary scale and leave entitlements. Secretaries who opted to accept the terms and conditions of the agreement were assimilated onto the salary scale in one of three ways. Secretaries were assimilated onto the next point of the salary scale based on their pay as at September 2021. Those with 10 – 19 years’ service were placed at Point 5 and those with over 20 years' existing service were placed at Point 7, unless they were already earning more than this in which instance they would be placed according to their hourly rate of pay.
Under the terms of 0036/2022 new entrants are placed at the start of the incremental salary scale unless they have 10 years’ service or more as a school secretary in which case, they are assimilated to Point 5. No other administrative experience is taken into consideration for the purposes of assimilation.
Circular 0036/2022 applies only to formerly grant funded secretaries and not Clerical Officers or Grade III public servants which are allocated to certain schools.
The provisions under Circular 0081/2020 which allows secretaries to upgrade their pay scale from Grade III to Grade IV is only applicable to secretaries employed under the 1978 scheme or in Department sanctioned posts. Secretaries employed through ancillary grant funding and those who have moved to the Department’s payroll are not encompassed within the terms of this circular.
In the normal course, there are ongoing discussions with the public service unions on matters relating to pay agreements as well as general terms and conditions of employment. Any changes to terms and conditions can occur only under those processes and any such proposals would need to be considered in detail by the Department, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and the relevant unions.
