School secretaries who missed out on the chance to transfer to the national contract and pay deal negotiated by the union and implemented in 2023, can now apply to transfer to the Department of Education payroll system.

Those transferring will be able to receive the on-boarding allowance and will be assimilated to the new pay scale from 1st September 2024. 

The Department of Education has issued an invitation to schools where the secretary is not on their payroll system. Last September a number of school secretaries who were paid marginally over the maximum of the new pay scale opted to stay on their local contracts.

Following the ratification of the Public Service Agreement 2024-2026 in March, new public sector pay increases have been applied to the school secretary scale. Consequently, secretaries who remained on local contracts may now find that transferring to the national contract and the Department’s payroll system is financially beneficial.  

Fórsa assistant general secretary Shane Lambert said: “If this applies to you, you can now opt to transfer to the terms and conditions of the national contract, negotiated by Fórsa.”

“In that negotiation we were able to ensure school secretaries would benefit from any pay raises negotiated nationally for public servants. It’s great to see that come to fruition now, and we’re keen to make sure all school secretaries can benefit from this.” 

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