If the school secretaries win, we all win

School secretaries and caretakers in schools across the country will go on strike from Thursday 28 August to fight for pensions and better conditions. Pickets will be placed on schools from 1 September.

Until recently, the vast majority of secretaries were employed directly by Boards of Management, with no job security and precarious conditions. After taking industrial action they were finally granted public sector worker status in 2023. This means that secretaries are now paid by the Department of Education, receive an annual salary and do not have to sign on every summer – but they do not have access to public sector pensions. They also do not have access to the same sick leave as their teaching and Special Needs Assistant colleagues, and even more shockingly they do not have access to the same bereavement leave.

For caretakers, the situation is even worse. While also denied pensions or sick leave, they are still not employed directly by the Department of Education and are not on the public sector payroll.

The ballot for strike action was a massive 98% in favour. It’s no wonder, given that school secretaries , who are members of Fórsa trade union, were encouraged to accept the 2023 deal on the promise that the outstanding issues would be quickly dealt with. Their campaign of industrial action will begin with a mass rally on Thursday 28th outside the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, with further rallies taking place across the country on Friday. 

Currently all other school staff have been instructed by their unions to continue working, but the work of striking secretaries and caretakers is so vital to the running of schools that schools will be unable to stay open if all trade union members, as instructed, do not undertake any of their colleague’s duties.

Fórsa, INTO, TUI and ASTI members need to ensure in their workplaces that there is unity in action. The Government has had two years to resolve this issue. The power we have as workers does not lie in good PR or exchanging pleasantries in a board room with government ministers – it is in withdrawing our labour and facing them down when they have refused to accede to very minimal demands. 

This is the most right-wing government we have possibly ever had in Ireland. It is a government of big landlords and big business. Its interest lies in keeping workers and wages down. It has delayed for years on delivering a pension scheme for private sector workers and it shamelessly cut public sector pensions in 2013 during the financial crash. 

The refusal to grant a pension to school secretaries and caretakers reflects a fear that concession could fan the flames of more demands for basic rights from other groups of workers. That is why it is in all our interests that they win. This is a hugely popular strike as secretaries and caretakers are extremely well valued in communities for the work they do. Public support is very high and, with solidarity from other school workers, the potential for finally winning these demands is huge.