The Department of Education has agreed changes to the Special Needs Assistants (SNA) job-sharing scheme in respect of working hours, following continuous pressure from Fórsa on the matter.

The changes agreed to remove all reference to both the full time 32-hour working week and the 16-hour part time working week from the job sharing circular.

The scheme will now operate on the basis that an SNA is entitled to 50% of their pay based on their salary immediately prior to entering the job-sharing arrangement and their hours of work will be 50% of the weekly hours worked immediately before entering job sharing. Other changes agreed include allowing access to the job-sharing scheme for SNAs in a 0.83 WTE post.

The new arrangements come into effect at the start of the next school year in September 2023.

The pre-existing SNA job sharing scheme was based on a requirement for job sharing SNAs to work a 16-hour week. Whilst the SNA substitute pay rate is based on a 32-hour working week, the normal SNA working hours are set by the school on a bell-to-bell basis, with a short period of time before and after class for preparation and clearing down.

The use of the 16-hour working week for job sharing gave rise to a presumption that SNA contracts could be issued with a requirement for a full time 32 hour working week. In many instances job sharers experienced a pro rata loss of pay each hour when they entered job sharing and moved to the 16-hour pattern, as their full-time hours may have been 28.5 per week when full time.

The use of the 32-hour working week also caused difficulties in schools where contracts with the longer working week were issued to new staff whilst existing SNAs retained a shorter working week in line with the National SNA contract.

Head of Education Andy Pike said he was “very pleased” to have secured these beneficial changes.

“In the recent past we have been forced to take cases in the courts to prevent schools using the 32-hour week, the length of the working week remains bell-to-bell as was always the case. Whilst there will always be small differences in hours across schools, this change confirms, once and for all, that the 32-hour working week cannot be used for SNAs in any school,” said Andy.

Andy also highlighted that SNAs will no longer be short changed when they become job sharers and will get half their normal pay and work half their normal hours instead of the 16-hour week.

“This represents an early beneficial outcome from the talks on the new SNA contract. One of the many key demands the union made at the start of the process was to clarify that the 32-hour working week did not apply, and this outcome represents the first successful engagement in that on-going process. We hope to have more news on substantive developments shortly.”

Further talks will now take place on the implications of this change for existing job-sharing arrangements in schools.

For further information, see ‘Amendment to the Job Sharing Scheme for Special Needs Assistants employed in Recognised Primary and Post Primary Schools’ HERE.

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