Divisions

School secretaries plan four rallies on Friday

School secretaries will be holding rallies in four locations across the country as part of this Friday’s (10th January) national strike. Fórsa is encouraging school secretaries and their supporters to attend the events if they can. The strike will also see pickets mounted on a number of schools across the county.

The rallies take place at:

  • DUBLIN: 1pm at Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
  • DONEGAL: 1pm at the constituency offices of education minister Joe McHugh, Grier House, Lower Main Street, Letterkenny.
  • ATHLONE: 1pm at the Department of Education and Skills offices, Cornamaddy, Athlone, Co Westmeath
  • WATERFORD: 8.30am at People’s Park, Newtown Road, Waterford (Park Road entrance).

Transport has been arranged to facilitate attendance at the rallies. The bus timetables are as follows:

  • Cork to Dublin: Leaving Alfred Street at 9.30am.
  • Galway to Athlone: Leaving Fórsa Office Galway at 11am (Paul Nash Bus Hire).
  • Limerick to Dublin: Leaving Fórsa Office, Roxboro Road at 9.30am.
  • Sligo to Letterkenny: Leaving Sligo Retail Park at 10.30am (John Reynolds Bus Hire).

Friday’s nationwide strike is to be followed by a resumption of a work to rule, which was suspended in October 2019 in order to facilitate discussions at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

The vast majority of school secretaries working in Ireland are women.

The dispute is over the continuing two-tier pay system that leaves most school secretaries earning just €12,500 a year, with irregular, short-term contracts that force them to sign on during the summer holidays and other school breaks.

The vast majority of school secretaries working in Ireland are women.

The dispute is over the continuing two-tier pay system that leaves most school secretaries earning just €12,500 a year, with irregular, short-term contracts that force them to sign on during the summer holidays and other school breaks.

The decision to take strike action and resume the work to rule followed what Fórsa described as an ‘insulting and derisory’ offer of 1.5% at the WRC last December. This is because they have repeatedly been refused public service pay and conditions over the last four decades.

The current round of talks have been underway since October, although the union has been campaigning for pay equity for more than two decades.