Fórsa’s ETB branch has called for an end to the outsourcing of administrative work in Education and Training Boards (ETBs), criticising the practice of “paying premium rates to private companies” rather than sanction the creation of sustainable local jobs.

Speaking to a conference motion on outsourcing at last month’s Education divisional conference in Portlaoise, ETB branch PRO Caitríona Tuite said the Department of Education seemed content to pay for outsourcing rather than create direct employment within ETBs.

Caitríona told delegates that outsourcing public services results in reduced and more costly services to the public. She said the practice meant abandoning the opportunity to create a structure “where staff can upskill (and) build, share and maintain sectoral knowledge, develop their careers and serve the learners in their local communities.”

The motion, backed by delegates at the conference, calls on Fórsa’s Education DEC to ensure ETBs cease the practice of outsourcing administrative work to private companies, and to ensure the use of direct employment.

Caitríona added: “We have only to look to the UK or to France to see the effects of attempts to defund and privatise public services.

“It’s unacceptable to use public monies to line the pockets of private companies when instead we should ensure that public monies are used to promote direct, local employment,” she said.

She added that, since the creation of the ETBs in 2013, no clear administrative structure had been developed by the Department of Education: “Instead the austerity measure of an ‘Employment Control Framework’ - brought in to manage the recruitment moratorium - is still being enforced in ETBs.

“It’s tying their hands in terms of recruitment and retention of administrative staff, although DEPR insist the emergency measures ceased in 2015,” she said.

Caitríona said the lack of support and structure for admin functions has resulted in the Department of Education approving the recruitment of private agency staff in the administrative grades, and outsourcing project management and other administrative processes from ETBs to private firms.

She added: “Hundreds of thousands of euros each year is spent on agency admin staff because management has refused sanction to fill the necessary posts and at the appropriate grades. The work exists and is growing daily, but we cannot get past the austerity-era employment controls in order to properly recruit and retain the required staff to run our services efficiently and effectively,” she said.  

There’s never been a better time to join a union, and it’s never been easier. Join Fórsa today.