Fórsa called for an end to what it describes as the “deliberate and indefensible exclusion” of school secretaries and caretakers from public service pensions and entitlements. 

Addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Youth yesterday (Thursday), Fórsa national secretary Andy Pike said the State’s continued refusal to confer public service status on these workers was “a calculated policy decision to maintain inequality, regardless of the cost to those affected,” adding that the policy had “locked out several generations of school staff from secure income in retirement.” 

Andy was speaking ahead of indefinite strike action, set to begin on 28th August, backed by 98% of Fórsa’s school secretary and caretaker members in a recent ballot. 

He told the committee: “We are seeking parity and equality in pensions and employment conditions for school secretaries and caretakers. The Minister for Education is the paymaster and sets the terms and conditions of employment for all such staff, including granting access to the Single Public Service Pension Scheme. 

“They work in the same schools, under the same boards of management, on the same departmental payroll as teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs), but they are treated as second-class staff in every material way,” he said. 

Fórsa represents more than 2,800 school secretaries and caretakers nationwide. While the 2023 agreement between Fórsa and the Department of Education brought school secretaries onto the centralised public payroll, and delivered substantial pay improvements, they remain excluded from the Single Public Service Pension Scheme. They are also denied key entitlements including occupational sick pay and bereavement leave. 

Caretakers, meanwhile, are still awaiting implementation of a comparable pay deal, three years after the original agreement was signed. Many remain on €13 an hour, a rate that has not changed since 2019.  

Responding to questions raised by committee members, Fórsa School Caretaker branch chair David Hearne described the circumstances of a colleague in Meath who was out of work with a back injury for 12 months, with no access to occupational injury or sick leave scheme: “He had no assistance other than social welfare. He was a young man, with three kids, mortgage, and he was (only) getting about €380 a week. If the same happened to a teacher, and he was out for a number of months, he’d be covered.” 

Luisa Carty, chair of Fórsa’s School Secretaries branch, provided an example of one school secretary who continued to work while receiving chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, and another member who received just two days of sick leave from her school while being treated for the same illness.  

Andy told the committee that decades of engagement, promises and political goodwill had failed to deliver pension parity: “The agreement reached for school secretaries was a landmark. But without pension provision, it remains incomplete.  

“Our members have waited long enough. That’s why they’ve voted overwhelmingly to strike, and to picket the very department that continues to block progress,” he said. 

Andy added that union members had lost faith in government commitments after a series of refusals by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR) to even discuss pension access. Fórsa has formally advised the Department of Education that it remains available for meaningful talks on terms for public service status and pension inclusion. 

He said: “What’s at stake is fairness. It’s about the school secretary or caretaker who, after 40 years of service, retires with nothing while their school colleagues leave with a secure pension. It’s about a worker diagnosed with cancer being denied the basic sick pay protections afforded to every other school staff member,” adding that there is no justifiable objective reason for their exclusion.

During the committee hearing, Andy also highlighted the significant public and political support for the campaign, pointing to the widespread backing of school communities and cross-party endorsement from Oireachtas members: “It’s rare to find a union issue with such universal support. The only people holding this back are senior civil servants who benefit from public service pensions themselves but continue to block access for low-paid staff in our schools,” he said. 

The committee agreed, unanimously, to write to both the Minister for Education and the Minister for Public Expenditure expressing the committee’s support for the Fórsa claim and urging both to help resolve the outstanding issues in order to avert the need for strike action. 

The strike will begin on Thursday 28th August and start with a rally on Merrion Street, outside the offices of DPENDR. From 1st September, Fórsa members will place pickets on schools nationwide.   

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