Members, check your emails for full details and the FAQs. Information meetings are being organised.
Please see here for the media release, with more detail.
Throughout this lengthy process, government officials said that the auto-enrolment pension scheme is comparable, and in some ways better, than the single public service pension scheme.
However, the court has found that the phased auto-enrolment pension scheme is not comparable with the Single Public Service Pension Scheme.
So, the court has recommended that a Pension Gratuity be used to make up the gap between the value of the phased auto-enrolment scheme and the public service pension scheme.
If the Court’s recommendation is accepted by school secretaries and caretakers, your pensions will be made up of:
- The State Old Age Pension
- The auto-enrolment pension and lump sum at retirement
- The Gratuity
The gap in pension benefits was found for people from the age of 40 years onwards, because staff would not have enough time to build up pension funds in the auto-enrolment scheme to get comparable benefits to the public service scheme.
How the gratuity would be calculated is based on a formula from the Labour Court. All staff with full service from 2015 onwards would receive a maximum gratuity amount of €20,000, *pro rata*, depending on working hours.
No retrospection (back-dating) has been provided by the Court. The Court’s recommendation states that the union side sought this and it was vigorously opposed by the government side throughout.
We will now ask for negotiations to resume at the WRC, to address the other issues such as the agreed Caretaker Pay Structure, bereavement leave, sick leave, and acute illness leave.
A ballot of secretary and caretaker members will take place, as soon as WRC negotiations are completed.