Sir, – Another summer ends and staff and students head back to schools next week. Or in the case of most school secretaries, another summer of being effectively locked out of their employment and onto social welfare once again.
Invoices have mounted up. Late enrolments are not fully processed. Payroll issues are unresolved. So at the very time the school secretary wants to help welcome new pupils, reassure anxious parents, and ensure all staff we have everything they need, we face this annual logjam. But we plough on.
And what to look forward to? Another year of signing on at midterm, Christmas, Easter. Another year of going to work sick if you want to get paid – unless it’s Covid related. Yes, it took a global pandemic to gain even that much. And another year of dedicated service to the State, accruing nothing whatsoever toward a pension.
All this against the backdrop of Education & Training Boards (ETB) and Department of Education-employed secretary colleagues, doing the same jobs for a vastly superior range of benefits.
The programme for government promised to resolve this historic two-tier pay system. It has spectacularly failed to honour that commitment. On October 8th, 2020, Leo Varadkar announced in the Dáil that Government was in favour of regularising the pay and pensions of secretaries and caretakers. Since then, the only offer that has been made is to increase the minimum hourly pay rate from €13 to €13.50. This rises to €15 per hour – by the year 2030. Even this rate (on a full-time basis) would still be €12,000 less than secretaries and caretakers can earn as public servants in ETB-administered schools.
If we considered that having a teacher at the helm of the Department of Education might serve our cause, we were naive. No doubt Minister for Education Norma Foley will be “paying tribute” to education staff once again as schools reopen in the challenge of a pandemic. School secretaries, disrespected and disregarded by Government, do not want to hear it. – Yours, etc,
GINA BYRNE,
Birdhill,
Co Tipperary.