School secretaries and caretakers take protests to Westmeath Ministers' offices

Today is the fourth day of indefinite strike action by school secretaries and caretakers represented by trade union Fórsa.

The Westmeath school support staff have taken their pickets from outside schools today and brought them to the offices of the two Government Ministers in Mullingar as they continue to fight for parity with their colleagues in the education sector.

The strikers are seeking to have the Department of Education classify them as public servants, which would entitle them to a public service pension, among other benefits.

A large group of the Fórsa union members assembled outside the offices of Ministers Peter Burke and Robert Troy today.

Passing cars beeped ther support as the strikers blew whistles: “They want us to have pension parity with our fellow teachers and SNAs. Nobody realised how badly we were paid or looked after until this has all happened,” Florrie Gill of Kilbeggan NS told the Westmeath Examiner.

“People assumed we were paid during the summer up until a few years ago, and we weren't. Nobody knew we weren't getting a pension and it's shocking, people are shocked by it,” she said of the support the public were showing.

The Kilbeggan NS secretary said the union feels strike action is the only option: “We work because we love our jobs, but it would be nice to have a pension and something to fall back on. If teachers and SNAs can have it, why can't we?

“The Department of Education pays them, that's the mad thing. We work in the same building and it's very unfair that we don't get paid a pension as well. We don't get sick leave, we don't get bereavement leave. That's not equal, that's very unfair.”

Taking the industrial action outside the offices of the Minister is the latest move by the union members: “We're looking for support and all from all these politicians, we want them all to go to Minister Helen McEntee we want them all to go to the Department and put pressure on Minister Jack Chambers to get to the table and to get discussing with Andy Pike who's the Head of the Education division of Fórsa.

“We want them to start talking, we want them to talk about pensions and parity and we should have it and we need it and we've a right to it. At present you have secretaries working for 30 and 40 years and when they leave they get a bunch of flowers, if they're lucky.”

There is a sizable gathering at Blackhall Place, outside Minister Burke's office: “We have secretaries and caretakers and all from around Westmeath. We've even set up our own WhatsApp group and it has grown, we had about eight on Thursday after our trip to Dublin and we have over 30 now who've all joined because they all want to be in solidarity with each other.”

The group outside the Minister's offices are part of over 2,600 Fórsa members striking for access to public sector pensions and other key entitlements.