Fórsa is awaiting an imminent response from the Department of Education following on from the union submission on the Special Needs Assistants (SNA) Contract Review.

On foot of the initial contract review meeting in October, the union made a submission to the Department with details of the items it would like to see properly addressed.

In its submission Fórsa said it believed there was no longer any legitimate rationale to retain the current model of the SNA redundancy scheme and subsequent model of allocations.

The union said SNAs endured hardships, angst, and difficulty year on year while waiting for the allocations to be announced and figure out whether they have a job for the coming year.

 The submission also emphasised the following:

• The need to tighten and clarify the provisions in the contract regarding appropriate work.
• The current allocation system is not fit for purpose and would like to see a robust transfer scheme put in place
• A review is needed for the minimum education qualifications for SNA’s
• A clarification on break times for SNA’s

Fórsa official Shane Lambert indicated that the union would present the best-case arguments for all the issues outlined and try to get commitments to address them, but the discussions must be realistic and don’t necessarily mean a positive outcome is guaranteed.

“We have outlined several important issues to be addressed as formal discussions progress. SNAs are public servants and should not be precluded from benefits enjoyed by colleagues across the wider public service. Once we receive a response from the department, Fórsa will review and keep members informed through branches and the e-bulletins,” he said.

The union will be issuing the comprehensive submission to branches in the near future. The full document outlines the entire range of issues officials have raised in these initial discussions.