1.5% pay rise offer an insult to school secretaries
9 December 2019
Labour’s Employment Spokesperson Ged Nash has described a 1.5% pay rise offered by the Department of Education & Skills to school secretaries as “insulting and derisory”.
He said;
“School secretaries employed by boards of management do the work of public servants but have none of the job security and benefits.
“Far too many of them have to sign on during school holidays and receive no occupational pension. This is precarious work at its most extreme.
“For the Department to offer them a miserable and derisory 1.5% pay rise is an insult to their intelligence and shows a wilful ignorance on the part of the Minister and the Department around to the issues at the heart of this dispute.
“School secretaries employed by school boards of management suspended industrial action a couple of months ago in good faith on the basis that they would have their call for respect taken seriously by the Minister for Education and his officials.
“Instead the department tried to buy them off with an offensive and Scrooge-like pay offer.
“The Forsa members have been left with no option other than to recommence their action with a national strike set to take place on the 10th January."