A Labour Court recommendation proposes tax-free lump sums for school secretaries and caretakers over 40, offering compensation instead of pension parity with teachers, while accepting Government claims that auto-enrolment benefits are comparable for younger staff.
School secretaries and caretakers aged 40 and over would receive tax-free lump sum s of up to €20,000 under a Labour Court recommendation aimed at resolving a long-running dispute over pension inequality.
The proposal, which follows a rift between unions and the Government, suggests that older staff who have been excluded from the standard public service pension scheme be compensated with a gratuity rather than be automatically enrolled in the State's auto-enrolment pension scheme, known as MyFutureFund. The court accepted the Government's argument that for many employees the combined benefits of auto-enrolment and the State pension would be comparable to those of the Single Public Service Pension Scheme (SPSPS).
However, it determined that workers over 40 would not have sufficient time to build up comparable benefits before retirement and therefore should receive a lump-sum payment. The sums would range from €3,000 to €20,000, scaled according to part-time working hours and length of service over a 10.5-year qualification period. Based on provided examples, typical payouts might fall between €8,000 and €12,000, though individual amounts would vary.
The calculation is capped at a weekly salary of €600, the same threshold used for statutory redundancy, a figure unchanged for over two decades despite union calls for an increase. The recommendation does not address whether that cap will be raised. The SPSPS, introduced during austerity, has been repeatedly criticised by public sector unions as offering inadequate benefits.
Unions are expected to highlight the court's view that for many, particularly younger recruits, the auto-enrolment scheme's benefits are only comparable, not superior. While the union Fórsa welcomed the development as a significant step toward ending over 40 years of inequality for a workforce essential to school operations, it noted that some members will lose out depending on their age and timing of retirement. Branches will now consider the terms while negotiations on other outstanding issues continue
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