Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I welcome the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin and congratulate here on her appointment. I am pleased the Minister is present as she has overseen the Department of Education and Science for the past three and a half years. I raise the issue of school secretaries and caretakers across the State who are receiving disparate rates of pay and these workers, if they are not covered by the Department of Education and Science scheme, are in many cases paid below the minimum wage.

I recently received correspondence from the Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union, IMPACT, bringing to my attention the issue of school secretaries and caretakers. I was shocked to discover the startling and unacceptable situation whereby school secretaries and caretakers throughout the State are receiving disparate rates of pay and, in many cases, below the minimum wage. When I raised this issue on the Order of Business on the 24 April, the Leader of the House thanked me for raising it as he was unaware of it and described it as a serious state of affairs. I fully agree with him. This is an appalling situation and a gross exploitation of a group of workers so important to the day-to-day running of schools.

A two-tier system exists where some school secretaries employed before the implementation of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress in 1990 are paid directly by the Department of Education and Science. Those employed after the PESP are paid out of the ancillary grant given to the school boards, out of which other vital school expenses are paid. Consequently, those school secretaries employed after 1990 do not enjoy a standardised rate of pay, with some earning barely above the minimum wage.

In a recent survey undertaken by IMPACT it was found that there are school secretaries throughout the country earning less than the minimum wage. This is appalling and the under-funding of schools is almost certain to make such pay anomalies more commonplace. By examining the recent IMPACT survey the worrying pay rates which prevail among school secretaries and caretakers become clear. For example, a school secretary in County Limerick employed since 2000 started work on a 37 and a half hour working week with a gross pay rate of €225.86 per week. Today this person is still working a 37 and a half hour week at the same pay, for €225.86 per week, or €6.02 per hour. In County Donegal, a school secretary was found to be working for two schools where one paid €10 per hour and the other paid €7.70 per hour. In County Kildare, a secretary who had over 10 years service was being paid €10 per hour and who performed secretarial duties, caretaker duties, cleaning duties and special needs assistant duties. These are just some examples, but the list goes on.

The study carried out by IMPACT highlights other areas of concern. It was found in every region surveyed that virtually all school secretaries employed under the PESP scheme had no access to some of the most basic working conditions, such as sick leave schemes; promotional opportunities; any kind of fair procedures such as disciplinary, grievance, bullying and harassment; and contracts of employment either part-time, permanent, fixed-term or contracts of indefinite duration. In many cases it was also found that some secretaries were paid by cheque or electronic funds transfer without the benefit of getting a pay slip. Some secretaries received handwritten or printed pay slips which showed no deductions such as tax, PRSI and so on. In these cases there was also no access to a pension scheme or personal retirement savings accounts, PRSAs.

The denial of access to a pension scheme for some school secretaries and caretakers is very worrying and I have found a number of points which I hope the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, will take into account. Some school secretaries and caretakers are on the departmental payroll and in pension schemes. Others, although their posts are funded by the Department of Education and Science, are paid through grant aid to the school and are regarded as a school problem and as school employees. A pension is not automatically provided for such people except where the school can afford a private pension arrangement. This is anomalous and discriminatory. Even in circumstances whereby schools have an obligation to make available a PRSA account they are not bound to contribute to it and there is no indication that grants-in-aid are sufficient to allow a reasonable employer make pension contributions.

The Department of Education and Science will not allow the re-opening of scheme membership to persons who opted out of pension arrangements in the past. These people were offered membership of a pension scheme when they were put onto a departmental pay roll at the end of the 1980s. Many opted out because they could not afford it, or because they felt they were not long stay employees. Some of these people are still in the same post, getting older and would like to join the scheme. Despite the campaigns of several Ministers for Social and Family Affairs to widen scheme coverage, these employees are not allowed to opt in again, even for future service. All these findings show clearly the inordinate levels of exploitation to which these workers are subjected.

School secretaries and caretakers provide a vital service to schools around the country and that these people are being denied some of the most basic of workers' rights is nothing less than scandalous. I ask the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, to immediately address this issue, even though she is no longer at the Department of Education and Science. The Minister is aware that this practice is ongoing and it is not right to simply blame school boards of management. The responsibility to ensure that proper rates of pay and working conditions are afforded to all Irish employees rests with the Department of Education and Science, which indirectly pay these employees.