Cork school principal gives her backing to school secretaries' demands

Secretaries and caretakers are the beating heart of their schools, and their absence from work would have a severe impact upon students and teachers, a Cork principal has warned.

Exploratory talks between the Department of Education and the Fórsa trade union are due to begin today in advance of planned indefinite industrial action by school secretaries and caretakers nationwide.

More than 2,300 school secretaries and some 500 caretakers at primary and secondary schools across the country are due to begin an indefinite strike on Thursday, due to their exclusion from the public service pension scheme.

Approximately 2,000 schools will be affected by the industrial action, which was supported by 98% of union members.

Tracey Kennedy, principal of Coláiste an Chroí Naofa secondary school in Carrignavar, said she fully supported the requests of the school secretaries and caretakers.

“The secretaries and caretakers are the beating heart of any school,” Ms Kennedy said.

“There’s a huge amount of unseen work that they do, as the roles have changed dramatically since they were introduced; and for us, the idea of functioning — it’s hard to imagine how that would work out. The impacts will be different in each school, because the roles carried out by secretaries and caretakers vary from school to school, but if this action goes ahead, it will have a significant impact.”

Much of the work done by secretaries and caretakers was unseen, she said, but they all added up to a huge contribution they make every day in schools across the country.

“There’s going to be a huge impact from the bigger things right down to the small, everyday things,”

she said.

“The reality is that if there is industrial action, there will be a huge amount of things left undone, and when and if that action ends and the secretaries and caretakers return to work, they’ll be facing into a huge backlog of work.”

Ms Kennedy said she would not call on the minister for education to get directly involved, saying: “I’m sure the minister knows what to do herself”.