Fórsa has welcomed a new Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) agreement about pay and a future employment framework for School Completion Programme (SCP) workers.

The union has long been engaged in efforts to ensure all SCP workers were paid in accordance with public service pay rates, and for greater certainty on the future status of the scheme since it was subject to particularly deep cuts in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis. Responsibility for SCP had also been moved between Government departments, casting doubt on its future.

In early August, Fórsa secured a WRC agreement which provides for the application of public service salary scales to all SCP workers. In addition, the Department of Education has agreed to provide clarity on the future employment framework for SCP staff by September 2024, with quarterly meetings between Fórsa and the Department to review progress.

Fórsa’s head of Education, Andy Pike, said the agreement marked welcome progress: “School Completion Programmes provide a vital service for thousands of students who rely on their help and assistance to complete their programme of education.

“This agreement will ensure that staff are paid fairly in accordance with public sector rates and salary scales. The commitment to develop an employment framework for staff by the start of the next school year in September 2024 is also very welcome.

“We hope that the department will work towards regularising the employment status of SCP staff alongside colleagues who benefit from public service status,” he said.

Andy added that the new agreement will help to resolve problems for staff employed locally by individual programmes in recent years: “In some instances SCP staff haven’t received pay awards, have not been on the correct public service scales and have not received increments as they should, while about 30% of staff are employed by ETBs and are employed as public servants,” he said.

The new agreement means the Department of Education has agreed to instruct Tusla to apply the correct public service pay rates and scales to SCP staff employed by local programmes by 2nd October.

The SCP is currently administered through Tusla, the child and family agency, while the Department of Education is responsible for funding and policy. Fórsa has been lobbying for a policy decision on the future governance and direction of the service following Fórsa’s national SCP Symposium held in March 2022, which was attended by then Taoiseach Micheál Martin.