Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator O'Reilly for tabling this Commencement matter which I will be taking on behalf of the Minister for Education.

As the Senator will be aware, a very significant agreement was reached after extensive engagement between the Department of Education and Fórsa in relation to the terms and conditions of grant-funded school secretaries. The agreement provides for significant improvements in the terms and conditions of school secretaries. Fórsa recommended a package of measures to its members and a ballot resulted in 95% agreement in favour. Since then, in conjunction with Fórsa, work to implement this agreement has been ongoing in the Department. As part of the agreement, the Department is progressing the establishment of essential payroll services for school secretaries. The implementation of the agreement and the establishment of the central payroll service require data to be collected and analysed in order for each individual school secretary to be paid.

Last year, the Department issued Circular 36/2022 to schools in which it outlined how the agreement is to be implemented. This includes a requirement that as part of the first phase of implementation of the agreement, schools had to, by the end of September 2022, calculate the initial assimilation rate of pay and annual leave entitlement and offer it to each individual secretary working in the school. Entry into new pay arrangements is voluntary for existing members of staff. Where a secretary chose to move to the new terms and conditions, then the school was to pay the new rate of pay from September 2022. Following this initial process, a survey issued from the payroll division of the Department to all schools on 7 November 2022, seeking details of the offers made by the schools to their secretaries and any other information required to bring a secretary onto the payroll service. This survey closed in December and there was a high response rate. Based on the returns received, nearly 2,850 secretaries have accepted the offer made by their schools in line with the methodology set out in the circular. A small number of schools have yet to respond to the survey and the Department is following up with these.

The next phases of implementation which the Department is now progressing include the calculation of back pay to September 2021 as per the agreement; the payment of that back pay to individuals via the current grant process; the incorporation of national pay increases and increments into pay rates; and the annualisation of pay rates for secretaries who do not wish to apply for social protection benefits during school closures.