Tipperary school staff gain support as strike action looms
Tipperary councillors have backed school staff as strike action over pensions looms.
Caretakers and secretaries in schools all across the country are due to begin indefinite strike action on August 28, just as schools are set to return after the summer holidays.
The strike action centres on a row over access to public sector pensions for school staff, which has been described by a Tipperary councillor as unfair and unjust.
Sinn Féin councillor for Carrick-on-Suir David Dunne said that school secretaries and caretakers deserve access to the same pension as the teachers and SNAs they work alongside.
"No worker wants to be forced to take strike action outside their workplace. School secretaries and caretakers are not asking for a lot, they are simply asking for equality in their pension status and equal access to sick leave and bereavement leave,” Cllr Dunne said.
"Sinn Féin have been informed by Fórsa that there has been little contact made with them by the Minister or her Department seeking to resolve this dispute. The Government need to stop with empty words of sympathy for these Workers plight and take action to negotiate a resolution to this saga,” Cllr Dunne added.
Party colleage Annemarie Ryan agreed, saying that “as I have highlighted in previous statements secretaries and caretakers deserve the same public sector worker status as the teachers and SNAs they work alongside every day; they deserve pension parity”.
Cllr Ryan said that the workers’ exclusion from the pension scheme is unfair and unjust, and said that they have her full support as strike action looms.
Both Tipperary councillors called on Education Minister Helen McEntee to step in and negotiate an agreement with the Fórsa trade union to ensure that caretakers and secretaries get pension parity with other school staff.