John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister, Deputy McHugh, I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue. Deputy Stanley is right that they should be unionised. I agree that all workers should be unionised. The staff in my office are all unionised. I ask them to do this when I employ them. I recognise the very important work done by these and other support staff in the running of schools. I have spoken to a number of school secretaries about their employment conditions and understand the issues they have raised. I have met them and received correspondence.

Earlier this year the Department relaxed the moratorium for community and comprehensive and education training board, ETB, schools with an enrolment of 700, allowing them to employ additional school secretaries up to a maximum of two per school. There are 91 schools in the community and comprehensive and ETB sector that meet this criterion based on the information available to the Department. It is an initial step and has immediate effect.

Schemes were initiated in 1978 and 1979 for the employment of clerical officers and caretakers in schools. The schemes were withdrawn completely in 2008. They have been superseded by the more extensive capitation grant schemes. The current grants scheme was agreed to in the context of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress which was published in 1991.

The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools receive assistance to provide secretarial, caretaking and cleaning services under the grant schemes. It is a matter for each individual school to decide how best to apply the grant funding to suit its particular needs. Where a school uses the grant funding for caretaking or secretarial purposes, any staff taken on to support these functions are employees of individual schools. Specific responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school.

On foot of a chairman's note to the Lansdowne Road agreement, in 2015 the Department engaged with the unions representing school secretaries and caretakers, including through an independent arbitration process. The arbitrator recommended a cumulative pay increase of 10% between 2016 and 2019 for staff and that a minimum hourly pay rate of €13 be phased in over that period. The arbitration agreement covers the period up to 31 December 2019. The arbitration agreement was designed to be of greatest benefit to lower paid secretaries and caretakers. For example, a secretary or caretaker who was paid the then minimum wage of €8.65 per hour in 2015 prior to the arbitration process has from 1 January 2019 been paid €13 per hour, which represents a 50% increase in that individual's hourly pay.

Officials from the Department attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills on 9 April to discuss the status of non-teaching staff. In May officials from the Department had discussions with Fórsa representatives as part of a planned meeting. Fórsa took the opportunity to formally table a pay claim. It was tabled as a follow-on claim from the current pay agreement for this cohort of staff which lasts until December 2019. The Department issued surveys on 10 July to establish the full current cost of the trade union's claim. This is standard practice. Fórsa's claim will be fully considered once the current costings have been determined on completion of the survey analysis. I subscribe to the view that anybody has the right to take industrial action. We are asking that until the arbitration agreement expires in December industrial action not be taken by Fórsa members. Officials from the Department met Fórsa representatives last week.

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