Waterford prepares for indefinite school secretary and caretaker strikes
Starting from August 28, school secretaries and caretakers will be on indefinite strike, resulting from a dispute over pensions.
Secretaries and caretakers across the country will not be in work from this date onwards. Fórsa Trade Union, which represents more than 2,800 school secretaries and caretakers nationwide, said that the action has been backed by 98% of its school secretary and caretaker members.
The Union is demanding to be granted access to public service pensions.
Luisa Carty, Chairperson of the School Secretaries Branch of Forsa, told the Waterford News & Star that that the Department of Education are yet to engage with the organisation.
“We’re now sick of talking and writing nice letters to TDs and Ministers,” she said.
“We’re not looking for a handout, but we want to be on a level playing field with SNAs and with the teachers.”
Currently, many caretakers and secretaries have little or no access to pensions, limited sick leave and are facing job insecurity. Noreen O’Callaghan, who is a school secretary in Cork and Forsa member, told this newspaper that there are "school secretaries and caretakers across the country who are retiring with absolutely nothing”.
“The job has evolved,” she said.
“A school secretary deals with passports, medicals, dental records, admin work, correspondence with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Education, Tusla. We are the ones who apply for grants and handle payrolls. Cartakers deal with everything from plumbing to carpentry.
“So our workload is getting bigger and bigger and bigger, but yet ourselves and caretakers are the two people in the job who are not being offered a pension."
Rallies are due to take place in Athlone, Dublin, Bray, Sligo and Cork.
The strike action will be “unprecedented" Ms. Carty said.
Regarding potential disruption to schools in Waterford and across the country, she said: “This is being played down by the Department at the moment, buts it’s going to cause chaos at the start of the school year, because we won’t be there to do the work."
Ms O'Callaghan said: “When a school teacher or SNA is out, their leave has to be entered by us and subs have to be paid. None of that work will be done. So it’s going to affect teachers, SNAS and everyone who works within the school community."
“The plan is that people won’t cross the picket, so kids will be coming in and coming home again and that’s what we’re prepping for.
"This is the last thing we want to be doing, but we’ve had our backs pushed to the wall on this.”
Waterford Council recently unanimously passed a motion recently calling on government to ensure equal public servant status for school secretaries and caretakers.
Catherine Burke, principal of Mount Sion Primary school and local councillor, proposed the motion in City Hall.
“These are the people who open our schools in the morning and often lock them at night," she said, "it's unjust and unsustainable. Equal work deserves equal rights, nothing less.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Conor McGuinness recently addressed the Taoiseach on the issue, saying: “School secretaries and caretakers are the glue that holds our school system together and they don’t want to go on strike, they just want fairness when it comes to pay and conditions."
