Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I recognise the very important work done by school secretaries, caretakers and other support staff in the running of our schools. I have spoken to several school secretaries about their employment conditions and understand the issues they have raised. Earlier this year, I relaxed the moratorium for community, comprehensive and ETB schools with enrolments of 700 or more to allow them to employ additional school secretaries up to a maximum of two per school. It is an initial step and has taken immediate effect. In budget 2020, I increased the number of secretaries and caretakers in certain schools to allow schools with an enrolment of 500 to 625 pupils to fill secretarial vacancies provided they have fewer than 1.5 secretaries. Similarly, schools with an enrolment of 626 to 699 pupils may fill vacancies provided they have fewer than two secretary posts filled and schools of 700 pupils or more may fill caretaker vacancies provided they have fewer than two caretakers. These measures will take effect from September 2020.

Schemes initiated in 1978 and 1979 for the employment of clerical officers and caretakers in schools were withdrawn completely in 2008 and have been superseded by the capitation grant schemes. The current grant scheme was agreed in the context of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress published in 1991. The majority of primary and voluntary secondary schools receive assistance to provide for secretarial, caretaking and cleaning services under these grant schemes. It is a matter for each 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 those functions are employees of the individual school and specific responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school.

On foot of a chairman's note to the Lansdowne Road agreement, my Department engaged with the unions representing school secretaries and caretakers, including through an independent arbitration process in 2015. 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.

This 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, has been paid €13 per hour from 1 January 2019, which is a 50% increase in that individual's hourly pay.

Officials from my Department attended a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills on 9 April to discuss the status of non-teaching staff. Last May, officials from the Department had discussions with Fórsa trade union representatives as part of a planned meeting and Fórsa took the opportunity to formally table a pay claim. This 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. Officials from the Department met Fórsa representatives in September. Management bodies representing the employer schools impacted by the action were also in attendance at the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to further explore the details of the pay claim as presented by Fórsa and the nature of the industrial action.

On 30 September, Fórsa asked the Department to agree to use the services of the Workplace Relations Commission to resolve the dispute. As is normal practice, the Department agreed to use the industrial relations machinery of the State in an effort to resolve it. To address the various issues in the claim and arrive at a mutually acceptable solution, the Department is in discussions with Fórsa under the auspices of the WRC. Talks have been ongoing since October. At the WRC this week, the management side met with representatives of school secretaries and caretakers from the Fórsa union. The matter is still being progressed at the WRC where talks are ongoing and subject to the normal procedures, including confidentiality. In these circumstances the resumption of industrial action announced by Fórsa for the new year is disappointing while the WRC process remains ongoing, and I call on Fórsa to reconsider its action. I still believe we can find a solution through people sitting around the table.

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