Ms Luisa Carty:

The work of a school secretary is exactly the same across the board but the way it is done with ETBs is that you are a public servant immediately. We had a member who was ancillary paid who moved overnight to an ETB school and just like that, she had all the terms and conditions including pensions, bereavement leave and sick leave; she has everything. Even in the group we are working with here, we have two secretaries working in the same school. One is Department-appointed and paid through a grant through the school. The other has now moved over to the Department payroll. They were working in the same office, doing the exact same work but one has bereavement leave, pension and everything and the girl right beside her in the same office has none of that. The disparity exists within schools but the ETBs are on a different level to us altogether, even though we are doing the exact same work.