Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2024
190. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Education if there is any option for a school secretary to change the option that they selected relating to onboarding and annualisation of pay; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5153/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn February 2022, following a series of engagements at the Workplace Relations Commission, (WRC), a range of measures designed to improve the working conditions of school secretaries was proposed, which Fórsa agreed to recommend to its members. A ballot was undertaken, and the result was 95% agreement in favour of the deal.
Circular 0036/2022 Revision of Salaries and Annual Leave arrangements for School Secretaries employed in recognised primary and post primary schools which outlines how the agreement would be implemented was issued to all schools in June 2022. This included the requirement that, as part of the first phase of implementation of the agreement, schools had to, by the end of September 2022, calculate the initial assimilation rate of pay and annual leave entitlement and offer it to each individual secretary working in their school.
Secretaries who accepted the offer made to them by their schools (“opted-in”) are being paid through the Department’s Non-Teaching Staff (NTS) Payroll with effect from September 2023. There are currently over 2,900 secretaries on the Department’s payroll. Where a secretary chose to move to the new terms they were also able to opt for an additional benefit (an Onboarding Value/Allowance) to cover the value of certain social welfare benefits related to periods of layoff and have that salary ‘annualised’ across 52 weeks, thereby removing the requirement to seek jobseekers benefit during school holidays.
The Department will consider requests from secretaries who are being paid on a non-annualised basis to change to payment on an annualised basis. Any requests in this regard should be made to secretaryreturns@education.gov.ie
Those secretaries who have elected to remain outside the terms of the agreement, and off payroll, continue to be paid directly by their school through grant-funding arrangements. They will be provided with an opportunity to accept the terms and conditions of the agreement and assimilation to the payroll at the beginning of each school year. However, there will be no entitlement to retrospective pay beyond 31 August 2023.
It is important to note that once a secretary has gone live on the Department’s payroll system it will not be possible to revert back to being paid by the school.
In line with the provisions contained in Circular 0036/2022, new secretary appointments after 1st September 2023 will automatically be subject to the new arrangements and they will be paid through the Department’s payroll on an annualised basis (e.g. contracted for 39 weeks and paid over 52 weeks).
