Tipperary councillors back school secretaries and caretakers upcoming strike action

Thousands of school secretaries and hundreds of school caretakers across Ireland are due to begin indefinite strike action on August 28 in a dispute over equal public sector pension access.

Cllr Annemarie Ryan has  reiterated her calls for school secretaries and caretakers in Tipperary  to have access to the public service pension scheme, branding their exclusion from the scheme as unfair and unjust. She stated that these workers have her full support as industrial action looms.

READ MORE: Sun shines as Tipperary community celebrates a wonderful garden initiative

Cllr David Dunne of the Carrick On Suir LEA added 'no worker wants to be forced to take strike action outside their workplace and added that 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'

He stated that 'Sinn Fein 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 for the Tipperary Cashel LEA, Annemarie Ryan, ‘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,”

READ NEXT: Appeal issued for information on man who sheltered executed Tipperary priest

Cllr Ryan called on the Minister for Education to step in immediately and negotiate an agreement with FORSA Trade Union to ensure that our vital school secretaries and caretakers can come back to school with a fair pay and pension agreement.