School secretaries outlined their experience of poor pay and uncertain short-term contracts to a hearing of the Oireachtas education committee last week. The committee was meeting to discuss the status of non-teaching staff in schools, and sought written submissions from Fórsa and other stakeholders.

In its submission to the committee, Fórsa said most school secretaries are very poorly paid, with uncertain short-term contracts that force many of them to sign on during the summer holidays.

Fórsa has lodged a claim for special needs assistants (SNAs), who are seeking parity with teaching staff for breastfeeding break arrangements.

The European Parliament has backed a new directive aimed at improving work-life balance for working parents and carers.

The inaugural meeting of Fórsa’s Disability Network took place earlier this month, with a strong focus on the workplace experience of people with disabilities.

A new affordable childcare scheme, which comes into effect in October, will replace existing targeted programmes with a single, streamlined plan. Unions have welcomed an increase in the qualifying income threshold for State childcare support, but says more needs to be done to address low pay among early years’ providers.

Fórsa has welcomed a Government Bill, which would compel firms to report on their gender pay gaps. But the union says it wants to see a quick expansion of the number of companies covered by the new law.

Fórsa officials recently made a presentation to Jigsaw, the national centre for youth mental health, which is one of four mental health charities that received funds from the union’s 2018 charity cycling initiative.

Fórsa has queried a National Competitiveness Council (NCC) warning that wage costs are rising too quickly to maintain Ireland’s competitiveness. The NCC’s annual ‘Cost of doing business in Ireland’ report, which was published last week, cited wage costs among potential threats to future competitiveness.