Refusal to negotiate with School Secretaries and Teachers may lead to strike

LocalTD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has said that the Government’s refusal to negotiate and broker a deal with school secretaries, teachers, and other staff could lead to a strike during COVID and lead to our schools being closed once again. Teachta Crowe said: “Workers in our schools do not feel safe nor do they believe that their concerns around COVID and a range of other issues, including pay inequality, are being listened to. Only last night, the ASTI voted for industrial action. “A couple of weeks ago, Fórsa announced that they would be returning to the WRC in the hope of ending the long running dispute over the employment status and the pay and conditions of school secretaries and caretakers. This is an issue that I have highlighted for a number of years as numerous Governments have seen fit to ignore these workers.
 
“The Department of Education have failed to seriously engage with school staff or their union representatives to resolve these issues. They would not even discuss them with the secretaries and their union Fórsa which led to the breakdown in talks at the beginning of October. “Workers and their demands cannot simply be dismissed and ignored. Workers have rights and they will fight for those rights. No one wants to see them forced out onto a picket line because a Government is blind to the realities of what is happening in our schools.
 
“This can all be resolved by the Government sitting down with Fórsa, the ASTI, the INTO and the TUI and engaging in honest negotiation to resolve the very real and credible concerns that these unions have; pay inequality, decent working conditions, get tracing right, addressing overcrowded classrooms, and ensuring high risk staff are safe to name but a few. “This Government, like the one before it, believe that they can ignore workers and their rights and then are astonished when workers take industrial action to protect those rights. 2019 was the year of the nurses’ strike and 2020 could be the year of the teachers’ and school secretaries’ strike.”