Further negotiations between Fórsa and the Department of Education and Youth took place yesterday, Thursday 9th October, at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) with Fórsa calling for greater effort and urgency in talks. 

This was the third engagement since the agreement to suspend the strike action was finalised on Friday 5th September.

Negotiations are taking place to agree a new pay deal for caretakers, new bereavement leave entitlements, revised sick leave, acute illness leave entitlements and comparable pension entitlements for secretaries and caretakers.  

Speaking about the state of play, Fórsa’s head of education Andy Pike said that whilst some progress has been made on the terms of a new pay framework for school caretakers more effort and urgency must be shown on the employer’s side. 

He said: “It is now a month since the strike was suspended, and the department has had ample time to develop pension proposals that would provide parity with teachers and SNAs. It is high time they put those proposals on the negotiating table.” 

He also referred to the mechanism in the agreement reached on Friday 5th September, that allows the union to request a Labour Court referral should negotiators believe that the Department is not negotiating in good faith.  

Andy concluded saying: “Time is short and we hope the department now accelerate their efforts in these talks, otherwise we will have to seriously consider seeking a referral to the Labour Court.”