Fórsa’s School Secretaries branch is preparing a national campaign to improve secretaries’ pay next year.

Under the terms of a 2015 arbitration finding, the payment of four separate pay rises of 2.5 per cent for school secretaries and caretakers will be completed by 2019.

The branch plans to launch the campaign once these pay improvements have been completed.

Fórsa official Barry Cunningham explained that the planning for the campaign has gained momentum this year, following the union’s Education conference event in April.

“We’ve held a series of regional meetings over the previous 18 months which has seen the branch grow by 15%. We’ve established a working group for the campaign, including chairperson Maria Dunne and Kathleen O’Doherty from our Education executive. We plan to launch the campaign as the new school term 2018-19 gets underway,” he said.

Pay varies

Caretakers and secretaries pay rates vary, as they are determined by the individual board of management of each school, and paid from the ancillary grants paid to the schools by the Department of Education and Skills.

Almost all are paid below the scale paid to equivalent public service workers, including a minority of secretaries and caretakers who are paid directly by the department.

Unfairness

In a recent article in TheJournal.ie, long time Fórsa school secretary activist Kathleen O’Doherty compared the situation to the teachers’ equal pay dispute.

“It’s just the unfairness and disparity of it. Even when teachers talk about equal pay, they are coming in on a lower rate – but they still have their pay and conditions,” she told TheJournal.ie.

Kathleen had recently spoken to a school secretary who’d just been told that there was no work for her because the numbers of pupils at her school had dropped, while another was losing hours under similar circumstances.

“I understand the Department’s argument that pay rates are linked to the number of students, but three or four students less doesn’t make such a difference that it deserves a pay change,” she said.

Campaign

Fórsa, and one of its forerunner unions IMPACT, has championed the cause of pay parity for school secretaries over more than a decade.

Barry Cunningham explained that the 2015 arbitration finding was the first big breakthrough. “This was the first time that the urgent need for pay improvement was officially recognised in any way.

“Even after we won that battle, we were forced to take a number of school boards of management to task for not implementing the pay improvements that were due.

“Our School Secretary activists have been resilient, and have refused to back down on winning the recognition on pay parity that they deserve.

“Every school principal, every board of management and every parent who walks through the school gates knows just how invaluable their school secretary is to the life of the school. It’s way past time for the Department of Education and Skills to recognise that fact, and our campaign will bring that message to the Minister’s door,” he said.