Action follows commitment from Northern Ireland education minister Paul Givan that he will ask education authority to process requests for permanent contracts “as quickly as possible”

Unite is encouraging all its school support workers working on a temporary engagement forms for more than four years to formally request a permanent employment contract. Unite’s drive follows receipt of communication from education minister Paul Givan in which he said he would “ask the EA to ensure such requests are processed as quickly as possible”.

The commitment follows Unite making public 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”.

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 said, “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. a

“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.”

Note for editors: ‘Temporary employment forms’ were originally designed to be an expedient to allow schools to deal with unavoidable and pressing circumstances where a worker is urgently required. However reliance on such forms for the employment of school support staff has become ubiquitous with more than 14,930 classroom, general or nursery assistants (68.4% of the total workforce in Northern Ireland) currently employed through the mechanism. Full statistics on reliance on temporary contracts is available here.