Special needs assistants balloting over new pay deal
Fórsa’s 12,000 SNA members began balloting on Wednesday on whether to accept an option which the trade union said will improve pay at the top of their pay scale, as an alternative to accepting a 1% increase due this month under ‘Building Momentum’. Photo: Des Barry.
Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) have begun balloting on new pay measures negotiated under provisions in the new public service pay agreement.
The 'Building Momentum' agreement’s sectoral bargaining fund was designed to deal with outstanding adjudications, recommendations, awards, and claims relevant to specific grades, groups, or categories of public service workers.
Fórsa’s 12,000 SNA members began balloting on Wednesday on whether to accept an option which the trade union said will improve pay at the top of their pay scale, as an alternative to accepting a 1% increase due this month under ‘Building Momentum’.
The union said that negotiations with the Department of Education produced a proposal to replace the current 'long service increment' (LSI) on the SNA pay scale with a new increment, €1,100 higher than the current maximum.
In a bulletin to SNA members yesterday, the union’s head of Education Andy Pike said the new increment, if approved by members in the ballot, would be permanent and pensionable.
“All SNAs who are currently on the existing long-service increment would automatically then progress to the new scale maximum from February 2022.
“There are currently some 5,300 SNAs on the existing LSI. This option means that all of them would benefit immediately from the extension of the SNA pay scale,” he said.
The union chose not to lengthen the SNA pay scale by adding an additional LSI to the top of the scale, because that would delay access to the new scale point by up to six years, he added.
The ballot will close at 12pm on Friday, February 18.
