Fórsa has called for the abolition of the 72 hours and June obligations in the ongoing Special Needs Assistants’ (SNA) contract review discussions.

Following on from the initial contract review meeting in October, the union made an official submission to the Department, with details of the items it would like to see properly addressed.

The union says it has compelling evidence that the 72 Hours obligation is being widely misused by many schools.

Fórsa official Shane Lambert who is representing the union in the discussions said, “Whilst we have much historical evidence that the hours have been openly abused and SNAs are regularly requested to do duties that would not be appropriate to their role or related to SEN provision, the issue took a renewed prevalence during the pandemic.”

The union had previously requested a pause of the hours during the worst period of Covid when case numbers were spiralling, death rates were increasing and there was no vaccine protection.

Fórsa says the Department’s subsequent dismissal of this request remained at odds with the provisions of the agreed circular and only served to exasperate the issue to where it is today, with schools believing the hours are compulsory and must be completed.

“It has led to a situation where there is no real consideration to how best to utilise the hours for the benefit of supporting students with additional care needs,” said Shane.

The union says SNAs are being asked to take on duties that are not appropriate to them, and are instead used to displace work that should have been undertaken by secretaries, caretakers or cleaners.

Fórsa says the hours could have been better utilised for appropriate items such as the UCD training course, but there was no encouragement to do so by the employers.

The union’s official submission states that the constant issues with the hours highlighted that local employers cannot be left to use them appropriately and as such, they must be removed in totality.

“It is unfair to expect SNAs to continue to undertake the obligation which was introduced under the Croke Park Agreement amid the recession, when all other recession measures have been withdrawn, which has seen the most senior civil and public servants have their working time reduced from July 1st this year, including Department officials,” the union said.

Fórsa says the obligation in respect of post-primary staff for attendance in the month of June has also caused significant concerns which appear to increase year on year, much in the same vein as the issues experienced on 72 Hours.

In circumstances whereby there are no students with additional care needs on-site in June and where there is no suitable work for SNAs, there are consistent examples of staff being assigned inappropriate and sometimes deeming tasks which fall outside the remit of the statutory framework for allocating SNAs.

The union says these obligations and their evidenced misuse serves as a barrier to staff development which, as it stands, must invariably be undertaken by the SNAs themselves in addition to these block of hours and work.