Education Minister Paul Givan.
A leading union is urging all school support workers working on temporary engagement forms for more than four years to formally request a permanent employment contract.
The move is in response to a commitment from minister Paul Givan that he will ask the Education Authority to process requests for permanent contracts “as quickly as possible”.
The commitment follows Unite revealing official Department of Education figures which confirmed that 2,727 workers employed through ‘temporary employment forms’ were in place for four or more years.
The minister clarified he would comply with the terms of the Northern Ireland Executive’s own fixed term workers regulations and stated: “Any temporary staff who have accrued four years of service can contact the EA to request that their contract be made permanent”.
Two weeks ago Department of Education statistics revealed that nearly 15,000 low-paid education support workers remain on precarious temporary contracts and urged the minister to intervene to end “precarious temporary” working among school support workers.
The union said the widespread reliance on temporary working for staff such as nursery, general and classroom assistants in schools left staff working under “poor practices”, and not receiving pay during school holiday periods with “little job security from one year to the next”.
Given the predominant female composition of the workforce, the union highlighted major concerns that female workers were being treated in a such a problematic manner.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite has spearheaded the campaign to demand action on this disgraceful situation. It is completely unacceptable that temporary employment has become the norm for the employment of school support staff in Northern Ireland. It is grossly unfair and leaves workers facing long-term job insecurity and struggling to obtain loans or mortgages.
“This commitment by the Education Minister is welcome but long overdue.”
However despite the Minister’s commitment, there are over 12,000 school support workers on temporary contracts with under four years service, who remain in limbo.
Kieran Ellison Unite regional officer added: “The minister’s response is welcome and opens the door for some workers in precarious employment to be made permanent. But it still leaves thousands of other school workers in limbo and languishing on temporary contracts.
“We will not let up on our efforts until we end this unfair practice so that all school support workers get a proper contract of employment and real job security.”
