Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

494. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the implementation of the agreement on school secretaries’ pay and conditions; the Departmental resources that are being used to ensure the speedy resolution of the issues; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39159/22]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

School secretaries and caretakers are valued members of our schools. I am fully aware of the vitally important role played by them in the running of our schools and I support fully this important agreement which will improve their terms and conditions.

The majority of primary and post-primary schools receive assistance to provide for secretarial services under grant schemes. Where a school employs a staff member to support those functions those staff are employees of individual schools and responsibility for terms of employment rests with the school.

Fórsa trade union had tabled a claim in 2019 seeking parity of these staff with ETB public service staff. Extensive engagement has taken place since then between the Department and school management bodies with Forsa to work towards a resolution with the support of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

On the 24th February this year, following a series of engagements at the WRC, a suite of measures designed to improve the working conditions of school secretaries was proposed, which Fórsa agreed to recommend to its members. A ballot was undertaken and the result was 95% agreement in favour of the deal. I was very pleased to hear of this overwhelmingly positive result on this long running issue, the resolution of which has been a priority for me since my appointment.

The work to implement this agreement has now commenced in conjunction with Fórsa; it requires a complex process of assimilating information to capture accurate data in respect of each individual secretary. Additional resources are in place to provide capacity to manage this process, ensuring both individual and school data is captured and correctly applied.

This will also require the development of an IT system to collect the data and action the payroll obligations. As this work is currently ongoing, it is therefore not possible to commit to an exact timeline but the Department has expedited the process and will communicate further as the work progresses.

The Department has issued a circular (36/2022) to schools outlining how the agreement will be implemented. The circular outlines that as a first phase of implementation of the agreement, schools must, before the end of September, calculate the initial assimilation rate of pay and annual leave entitlement for secretaries and offer it to secretaries.

Should the secretary choose to move to the new terms then the new pay rate should be applied by the school from 1 September 2022.

The verification of this first phase, the calculation of back pay and the option to have the value of Jobseekers Benefit included in pay will be addressed in the second phase of the assimilation process. The Department will continue to consider the approach to these further aspects and communicate to schools and secretaries as needed over the coming months.