Mr. Andy Pike:

No problem.

The basis of the current campaign for pension parity is simple. We are seeking parity and equality in the pensions and conditions of school secretaries and caretakers when compared to special needs assistants, SNAs, and teachers working in the same schools. Teachers, SNAs, secretaries and caretakers are all employed by their school board of management. Following the Fórsa pay agreement of 2022, secretaries are now paid by the Department of Education and Youth payroll system in the same way as teachers and SNAs. The Minister for Education and Youth is the paymaster and sets the terms and conditions of employment for all such staff, including granting access to the single public service pension scheme. This results in a teacher and an SNA within the same school being paid in the same way as a secretary by the Department of education. Circulars are issued by the Minister for education setting out salary levels, yet secretaries are not public servants and are denied access to the pension scheme whereas access to the scheme has been granted for teachers and SNAs.

It is our contention that there is no justifiable objective reason for the exclusion of secretaries and caretakers from those pension arrangements. The continued refusal to confer public service status to both secretaries and caretakers has locked out several generations of school staff from secure income in retirement. The Fórsa support our secretaries campaign, which ran from 2019 to 2022, succeeded in securing a groundbreaking pay agreement that sought to address the chronic low pay levels for secretaries who at the time were earning only €13 per hour. The final pay agreement provided for transfer to the clerical officer pay scale with some credit for prior service. This agreement increased pay levels for many secretaries by 50%. The fact that secretaries benefited from those significant pay increases should be seen in the context of the clerical officer grade being the lowest paid grade in the public service. Secretaries remain on mainly part-time contracts with most not even earning a full weekly wage during school term.

The agreement provided for five days paid sick leave rising to ten in line with statutory entitlements, and 22 days paid annual leave. Secretaries were given the option of claiming an allowance equal to job seekers benefit for weeks when they were laid off by their school to ensure they did not have to sign on during weeks of school closure. Over 80% of secretaries have signed up to the agreement and all new secretaries are employed on the new terms. The agreement states a similar pay framework for caretakers must be implemented. However, some three years into the lifetime of the agreement the Department has not brought forward any firm proposals for caretakers, leaving so many members on very low pay. Their hourly rate of pay has not increased since 2019 and remains €13 per hour unless an increase can be agreed locally.

The refusal to confer the same public service status for secretaries and caretakers as conferred on teachers and SNAs working side by side in the same schools also has other impacts. Whereas teachers and SNAs have access to the public service sick leave scheme, including access to extended critical illness benefits, secretaries and caretakers do not. Therefore, in the same school, a teacher or an SNA who becomes seriously ill with a cancer diagnosis has access to six months full pay and six months half pay, including the crucial illness benefit, whereas a secretary only has an entitlement to five days paid sick leave and a caretaker has no access to paid sick leave at all. Teachers and SNAs also have access to other public service entitlements, including bereavement leave of 20 days for an immediate close relative and five days for a member of their extended family. A secretary or a caretaker who experiences the same type of bereavement in the same school has no access to paid bereavement leave.

This disparity of treatment shows the truth of the way the State views school secretaries and caretakers. They had to fight for many years to get on the first rung of the public service pay system, and caretakers have still no pay deal after three years. They are treated differently when they are sick, they are treated differently when they suffer a bereavement, and they are not deemed to be worthy of the same pension rights as their colleague teachers and SNAs employed by the same school board of management. They are treated differently, they are treated as second class employees, and they have been exploited for decades and decades.

This campaign is unusual because it is rare to find an issue raised by a trade union that has seemingly universal support among the public, parents, students, colleagues across the schools and many political parties. Any objective assessment of the employment status of school secretaries and caretakers would result in the conclusion that as a group they have been taken for granted, undervalued and ignored within the schools' sector and the political world for far too long.

However, this Government in common with previous Governments has refused to address this inequality citing the costs and a policy position of not extending access to the public service pension scheme and public service status for any new groups of staff. The Department of Education and Skills, as it was, in 2019 gave an estimate in evidence before this committee that the full cost of providing access to the pension scheme for our school secretary members would be €30 million. The argument that this very small measure is unaffordable simply does not stand up to scrutiny given the very healthy state of the finances of the State.

On 8 October 2020 the then Tánaiste, Dr. Leo Varadkar, when answering a question in the House on the issue of school secretaries and caretakers pay and pensions stated:

The Government really values the essential work done by school secretaries and caretakers. Often, the school secretary is the first person one meets on the way into a school and the caretaker is the last person to leave in the evening. Schools would not operate without them and the role they play in our education system is as important as that of schoolteachers, SNAs and school principals. For that reason, it is the Government's objective to regularise their employment, terms and conditions, and pension rights.

We have no doubt that this statement was made in good faith and the sentiments expressed were heartfelt and genuine. However, when the issue of pension provision was raised again and again in negotiations in the Workplace Relations Commission in 2020, the union was informed that pensions could not and would not be discussed as the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform had issued instructions prohibiting any consideration of pension provision for secretaries and caretakers.

Our members have now concluded that they simply cannot rely on promises and commitments made by politicians, no matter how senior and distinguished they might be, and it is clear that the two-tier employment framework will be defended at all costs by senior civil servants within that single Government Department, who themselves enjoy the benefits of public service status but who continue to do everything in their considerable power to deny the same status and benefits for low-paid secretaries and caretakers.

It is also clear to school secretaries and caretakers that the current Minister for Education and Youth genuinely wants to help to resolve this problem. We also appreciate the support of many elected representatives from across the House from all political parties who agree that all schools' staff should have the same rights and entitlements. Yet none of that support, welcome though it is, can really make the difference needed to secure public service status and pension rights for school secretaries and caretakers.

When we think of our industrial relations system, it is tempting to believe that the institutions of the State should be capable of resolving this matter. A close examination demonstrates that the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, as it is now titled, will only respond to pressure if that pressure is applied in the strongest way possible. To make progress it is necessary to apply sufficient pressure to ensure that a genuine negotiation can proceed without the Department yet again being able to exercise a complete veto on discussion of pension provision.

Our members have decided, therefore, that after decades of writing letters, of lobbying their elected representatives, and of being let down time and again, the time is right to go on strike. Our ballot of secretaries and caretakers for an indefinite strike was supported by 98% of members with a turnout of over 80%. We have a clear and strong mandate for the strike, which will commence on the morning of the 28 August next with a national rally on Merrion Street outside the offices of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. We will place pickets on those buildings for the duration of the dispute to shine a light on those responsible for denying this justice and perpetuating this injustice. From 1 September our members will picket outside their own schools where we are certain their cause will be appropriately supported by teachers, SNAs, students and parents.

Those responsible for determining policy on public service pensions may argue that the days where new staff could be admitted to the scheme are long gone, that to allow any new secretary or caretaker into the scheme would cause contagion. I have heard them use that very term. If this were true why did the Department of Education in June 2023 offer a deal to secretaries and caretakers in the old 1978-1979 scheme, which provided entry to the scheme and recognition for pension purposes of all their service. This offer was made to a very small cohort of staff following representations from Fórsa. It resulted in a small number of secretaries and caretakers, who previously had been unable to access the pension scheme, being offered the full public service pension in return for their lump sum being reduced to cover employee contributions. If that offer was sanctioned by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation we see no reason the same or similar terms cannot be offered to all secretaries and caretakers working for school boards of management. The refusal to even consider taking such steps has caused great anger and frustration, as demonstrated by the outstanding ballot result in favour of strike action.

In summary, Fórsa has informed the Department of Education and Youth that we are available at any time for meaningful face-to-face talks on the terms by which our members will be granted public service status with access to the pension scheme. If our campaign succeeds, we will see an end the current situation whereby the secretary or caretaker, who after working for 40 years in the same school, and who is an integral part of the school community would retire this year with no pension provision while watching their teacher and SNA colleagues retire with full pension benefits. The secretary or caretaker who falls seriously ill and does not have the most basic safety net of sick pay would be provided with occupational sick pay in the same way as every other staff group in the schools' community, including access to critical illness benefit. On behalf of the members we represent I thank the committee for allowing us the opportunity of setting out the relevant issues.