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SCHOOL SECRETARIES ARE preparing a national campaign next year to address precarious employment issues and pay discrepancies.
The marked differences in salaries are because of the various methods in which secretaries are paid: some get a salary directly from the Department of Education and Skills worth between €24,000 and €31,000 while others are paid through an ‘ancillary grant’ that is given to a school’s board of management. The current rate at which the latter group is paid is €11.50 an hour.
These secretaries have no pension, sick leave or scale of pay as those paid through the Department do, and some have to apply for social welfare during the summer months.
There are around 3,000 school secretaries working at Irish primary and secondary schools. There are over 300 secretaries who are paid directly through the Department, with the rest in more precarious employment – (179 primary school secretaries and 130 post-primary secretaries at the end of the first quarter of 2018, according to government figures).
Kathleen O’Doherty, a Letterkenny-based secretary and a member of the trade union Fórsa, compared the situation to the equal pay dispute that teachers had raised over the past few years, where some teachers earn a starting salary that’s lower than their counterparts’ salaries.
“It’s just the unfairness and disparity of it,” O’Doherty said. “Even when teachers talk about equal pay, they are coming in on a lower rate – but they still have their pay and conditions.”
A secretary called me to say that she’d just been told that there was no work for her because the numbers had dropped – another said she was losing hours because they don’t have as many pupils at the school.
O’Doherty said that she understood the Department’s argument that pay rates are linked to the number of students, but “three or four students less doesn’t make such a difference that it deserves a pay change”.
Secretary Frank Considine told TheJournal.ie that the situation wasn’t fair, and some school secretaries might not be aware of the huge gaps between each other’s pay.
“If I might give one specific example to demonstrate the issue at hand, which I related to my own chairman.
Myself. School Secretary of an Administrative Principal. Mainstream school. Over 200 children, over 13 staff. My own salary, increased from €10,900 when I began this campaign, to €16,600 as a result of a review.
To my left. A colleague. School Secretary of an Administrative Principal. Mainstream school. Over 200 children, over 13 staff. Annual salary €27,000.
To my right. School Secretary of an Administrative Principal. Mainstream school. Over 200 children, over 13 staff. Annual salary €35,000.
“The overall funding all three schools receives from the Department of Education is identical. The difference in salaries is solely at the discretion of the respective boards of management.”
Considine has written to the Minister for Education a number of times in relation to pay, who he says has replied to say that he’s aware of the issue.
In one letter, Considine included three principals’ statements about their secretaries and their pay:
We have a school secretary who works 30 hours a week and a cleaner-caretaker who works 20 hours a week… The amount of money we can pay is dependent on our annual ancillary grant. Trying to pay both on a grant of between €38 and €40,000 does not leave much wiggle room. There is no such thing as increments. It is a very dead end job for a job that is so important to the school.
- Mayo principal
We have an excellent secretary, who is worth her weight in gold. We have not sufficient funds from ancillary grant to pay her over the summer months and she has to go on the dole. This, as you can imagine, is very embarrassing. - Sligo principal
We are a school of 413 children, two autistic units and almost 50 staff. The allowance given to us to pay for secretarial services is derisory I would love to see how they expect us to employ quality people in such an important job. The secretaries should be employed by the Department of Education and given the same conditions as other school staff. They are the backbone of my school.- Cork primary school principal
What are the rules around secretaries’ pay?
The two-tier secretarial pay was created in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1978, a secretarial and caretaking assistance scheme was set up to pay secretaries.
In 1982, a programme was set up to instigate economic progress, which included the capitation grants to employ secretaries.
Despite not being civil or public servants, in 2010 secretaries’ pay was cut under FEMPI measures, which were introduced during the recession to save money through introducing cuts to the public sector pay package.
As part of a national increase, and the unwinding of those cuts, a 10% increase from 2016-2019 was agreed. O’Doherty said that a 2.5% increase to someone who was on €9 or €10 an hour was “an insult” – but it was binding under the Lansdowne Road agreement and was agreed to.
In January of this year, secretaries being paid through the ancillary grant got their pay increased from €11.01 an hour to €11.50. In April this year it increased again to €11.79.
Those being paid directly from the Department of Education “on a salary scale equivalent to a public service salary scale” would get an increase of 1% of their salary. In October of this year it will be increased by another 1%.
A Department spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that “a minimum hourly pay rate of €13 for such staff is being phased in over the period 2016 to 2019″.
“In December 2017, the Department published circular letter 0078/2017 for primary schools and circular letter 0079/2017 for voluntary secondary schools, setting out the next steps in relation to the pay increase referenced above.
“These increases are binding and must be applied by all schools who employ staff to whom they apply.”
‘I face the real possibility of becoming homeless…’
But O’Doherty points out that secretaries paid through the ancillary grant receive “no pension, no sick leave entitlement, and no incremental pay scale increases”.
“Should an incident happen at a school, anything traumatic or serious happen within the school, there’s a 24-hour counselling service for staff and a telephone support line is set up. The only staff members that don’t get to avail of that is the secretary or caretaker paid through the ancillary grant.”
O’Doherty herself has been a school secretary for 21 years, but has no pension. She references another school secretary who had held the role for 28 years wrote to the Letters section of the Irish Times:
Next year I will retire. By that time I will have worked 29 years front of house in a State building. I like to think that being the first port of call I have served the school well. Despite this, the Department of Education will not acknowledge my contribution. I am not alone. It’s high time this difference was acknowledged and corrected.
Another secretary Jackie told TheJournal.ie that she was asked to do a number of courses before being hired in 2001 by her Dublin school’s board of management.
She said that even with the recent increases, she’s still on less money now than she was around ten years ago (before the cuts were intruduced).
“My biggest worry now is that when I retire all I have to look forward to is a State pension. My family have grown up and I find myself divorced and left with a huge mortgage which I struggle to pay at the moment, and will never be able to pay when I retire.
So after over twenty years (by the time I retire) of loyal service, I face the real possibility of becoming homeless…
Members of Fórsa are preparing for a national campaign to instigate a change to secretaries’ pay next year, once the current rates of pay that were agreed to are completed.
Since O’Doherty wrote her first letter to the Minister for Education in 2002, and years since of trying to highlight the issue to instigate change, she says “I don’t know what the secret is to get people on our side.
No matter what person you look at in this country, they have some connection with a school. Everyone comes through the school, and the first person that a young child meets is a school secretary.
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All school secretaries are worth their weight in gold. Their work load and the diversity of the job they do is incredible and simply not recognised.
The Dept. of Ed. have made an absolute mess of pay scales throughout the sector and don’t get me started on the way SNAs are treated in many schools.
So they want paid summer holidays, pension and a lump sum on retirement. Try a zero hour contract in home care. 40 hours one week and if a client goes into a nursing home you have to sign on the week after.
@Murf T Will: what exactly has this got to do with the article? Are you saying the answer is for everyone to be treated shoddily? Zero hour contracts are wrong in any workforce.
@2thFairy: I don’t agree with why one secretary is paid more than another. But just because you work in a school does not entitle you to the same privileges as another public sector work based on your work environment. They were hired and accepted jobs with the terms stated.
@Murf T Will: so because you’re miserable everyone should be miserable
@Ohhh_reeally: I’m far from miserable. I’m going to apply for a window cleaning job in my local Garda station. Definitely paid summer holidays and a lump sum on retirement.
@Murf T Will: but why not try and improve your working conditions. Doesn’t everyone strive to improve their conditions of employment? Especially when there is blatant disparity. Why shouldn’t they expect a pension and sick pay. Teachers and SNAs pay into a pension and receive sick pay. Surely that’s a basic right that most of the workforce have or want. This is a job done primarily by women who are asked to be professional and hardworking but to be happy with a bit of pin money.
@2thFairy: Sure the same can be said about secretaries employed under those terms. Why can’t they strive to improve themselves? I’m sure private sector employees couldn’t just go to their employer in the morning and ask for public sector remuneration packages. They’re are loads of people in similar scenarios. Just because you work in a public sector institution does not entitle you to better pay over others.
@Murf T Will: they are asking for parity and for the work they do to be recognised in their pay packet. I think you’ll find that both public and private sector workers look for these two components.
@2thFairy:
Most of the workforce? Sole traders and self-employed workers get nothing.
Maybe trim down the Vast Numbers of Deputy Principals in some schools on huge salaries or at least give them a bit more work to do; bigger schools now have 3 DPs + 1 Principal, all on very big salaries, spending huge amounts of time doing Mickey Mouse tasks that anyone could do eg. looking after kids lost items, signing in/out footballs, and huge amounts of this kind of stuff…maybe more Secretaries properly paid and less Chiefs at the top.
@Margate: well that’s some nonsense
@Graham: In fairness we have some very well paid people in Ireland and some very badly paid people. For the size of the country there are some serious discrepancies on the top end .
@Marcus o Dhonnghaile: totally agree but what was said about DPs is nonsense, that’s all
I work as a school secretary for two primary schools and I’m trying to get out because of all of the above. I work every summer. Unfortunately a lot of office/admin jobs don’t see a school secretary as real office experience, this was the feedback from a lot of my application forms and interviews. The only jobs I can get are other school secretary jobs which doesn’t help.
Many school staff are signing on in the summer. A lot of teachers have ten hours a week for maybe five years before they get a full time job. Its just cheap labour . No wonder people emigrate to the middle East. Ireland has loads of part time ,sometimes and no time work.
Our school secretary is an amazing woman . I had to fill in for her for two hours one day and even though I knew a lot of what she does, I don’t know how she does it! People coming at you from all sides , looking for immediate attention and she does it all with a smile.
Why is the pay not the same , total discrimination
@Gaz Barclay Dunnes: Why is the pay not equal? The difficulty is the two separate payment systems. Boards of Management rely on the Capitation Grant to fund employment of secretaries.It is well recognized that schools have to fundraise in order to keep going. They will pay an hourly rate if they get a secretary willing to do the work. The solution is obvious but the Government will not do it for cost reasons. Another aspect is the workload. A large school will need a full time secretary. A small school maybe a part time secretary. Whereas a class will always need a full time teacher. The difficulty seems insurmountable and unsolvable. It took a European Court decision on Catherine Sinnott’s child’s case to get the SNA system set up. Up to the 1970s the Principal doubled as a secretary.
My mother, a recently retired school secretary, campaigned tirelessly against this ridiculous and antiquated system for years. The government and department of education have long been aware of the disparity but choose to ignore it as it suits them for the majority of school secretaries to be paid by the ancillary grant and receive no benefits. Even the fact they still use the term ‘ancillary’ which derives its meaning from the term ‘a female servant’ says it all really.
Some of the above comments sadden me and also show how the Irish government find it so easy to do as they please in this country. We as people are so embittered by our own lot we have lost our moral indignation to the plight of others. Two wrongs have never made a right. The above working conditions are wrong…irregardless of whether your situation is the same or worse. We should be asking questions of our government such as why some TDs have two or three state pensions and are still working instead of undermining a group of people who are underpaid and overworked.
Welcome to pixeiland…. we’re all the same ..except them… fight among yourselves… i have cool socks!
All for equal pay equal work. All for paying for talent no matter gender. Gender equality my arse
Nobody has to sign on. Plenty of summer jobs available if you want to work.
So do l…..get over IT…….
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