St Leo’s College Carlow say they regret that SIPTU seem to have “placed their agenda above that of parents, staff and students.”
The secondary school released a statement following four of their staff going on strike and picketing outside the school yesterday morning.
The dispute between the trade union SIPTU and the Board of Management of St Leo’s originated over the board’s inability to provide their support staff with a workplace pension.
The board also made the decision not to go to the Labour Relations Commission, so yesterday, 4 members of staff along with a SIPTU representative picketed outside the school from early morning till 5pm.
SIPTU told KCLR News ahead of the strike that they felt they had no other choice but to take industrial action.
However the school’s Board disputes this saying the matter should be addressed at national level through established social partnership talks.
In their statement, the school says that the Department of Education has confirmed to them that funding for support staff won’t be forthcoming from them.
The school has put a Personal Retirement Savings Account scheme into place but the staff-members concerned have chosen not to avail of it.
SIPTU say they will now be operating a work-to-rule with further strikes probable.
