Fórsa’s Education and Training Board (ETB) branch has criticised the failure of the Department of Education and the Government to negotiate on a second phase of organisational design for ETBs, which would include a review of all grades and functions.

Speaking to the branch’s motion at Fórsa’s Education divisional conference in April, branch chair Marcel McCafferty said the ETBs would mark 10 years in existence on 1^st July this year, and that the majority of Fórsa members in the education sector had been working above their pay grades for many years.

He told delegates that a second phase of organisational design was to look at the staffing structure from director level to Grade III, in order to establish consistent structures across the ETBs.

However, he told delegates the process had yet to be agreed, and accused the department of ‘backtracking’ on its commitments as the department has denied it ever agreed to talks on a second phase.

Marcel told delgates: “As an employee of an ETB this has been a very frustrating time.

“Without a designated structure, staff have found limited career progression options, and we’ve unfortunately seen staff with many years of experience leave ETBs for that exact reason.

“I’ve witnessed two members with 18 and 16 years’ experience, respectively, leave in the past year due to the lack of progression options,” he said.

He added that modernised procedures had not reduced staff workloads: “The creation of Shared Services, to supposedly centralise the functions of payroll and finance, have not saved money nor saved work.

“They have in fact increased the work requirements of staff and all with only minimal temporary assistance from Government. In reality the majority of Fórsa members in the education sector have been working above their pay grades for many years,” he said.

He said the failure of the Government to negotiate on the staffing structures was “nothing more than an insult” to workers in the sector, and said political pressure was now necessary: “Whilst Education has always been a focal point for Government to hinge their election campaigns upon, the same cannot be said for their treatment of its employees in the education sector,” he said.

Delegates at the conference in Portlaoise in April backed the motion, which calls on the Education DEC to ensure continued progression of Organisational Design Phase II, to include a review of all grades and functions of an ETB.

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