School secretaries and caretakers in Waterford commence strike in fight for pay parity 

School secretaries and caretakers across Waterford began picketing outside their schools last week, as part of an indefinite nationwide strike, resulting from a dispute over pension parity.

Currently, school secretaries and caretakers do not have access to public service pensions and have limited sick leave allowance.

They continue to fight for parity with their colleagues in the education sector and are calling for the Department of Education to classify them as public servants, which would entitle them to a public service pension among other benefits.

The strikes involve over 2,600 school secretaries and caretakers across the country who are members of the Fórsa trade union.

Whilst on the picket line outside St. Mary’s National School in Ferrybank on Monday, Deputy David Cullinane (SF) told this newspaper that secretaries and caretakers "don’t want to be on strike, they want to be in schools doing their job, but they have to take a stand now."

"The support from the public is obvious, and this is now up to the government who have dragged their feet on this for too long. I don’t think there’s any campaign that’s more worthy of support than this," he said.

Meanwhile, Cllr Joe Kelly said that secretaries and caretakers are “a vital cog in the educational system”.

“There is a great unity amongst the school cohort and communities in general to support our caretakers and secretaries. The only people who are out of step on this is the government and the department. This can be fixed in the morning if serious negotiations happen," he said.

In June, the decision to commence the strike action was backed by 98% of Forsa's school secretary and caretaker members.

Since then, members say there has been no engagement from the Department of Education to resolve the issue and prevent the strikes from taking place.

On Wednesday last, further talks at the Workplace Relations Commission to avert the strikes concluded without any outcome.

"We don't want to be here, but we've been left with no option," said David Hearne, chairman of the Forsa caretakers branch, when speaking to the Waterford News & Star about the matter this week.

“I don’t know where this will end and we definitely don't want to be closing down school. Time will tell."

Caretaker at Gaelscoil Na nDéise, Dee, added that the daily operation of schools without secretaries and caretakers will become increasingly difficult if the issue is not resolved promptly: "It will become unsustainable for schools for an abundance of reasons; rubbish being overloaded in corridors, administration not being carried out by secretaries etc. Schools will come under enormous pressure.

“We don’t want to be out here. We’ll do everything we can to get this resolved in the shortest period possible, but we’re adamant that we’re not going back in until its resolved."

Caretaker at Waterford Educate Together National School, Brian, further commented: “We’ve been forced into this. We don’t want to be here; we’d prefer to be inside helping out the teachers and kids. The longer this goes on the worse it will get."

Meanwhile, secretary at Educate Together, Susan, thanked the community for their ongoing support whilst the picketing continues.

"I’ve been here for twenty years, I love the staff, the parents, the children, and the support they’ve given us during this time has been overwhelming."