Education being provided ‘on the cheap’
Education being provided in some of the most marginalised communities in Louth, and around the country, is being done on the cheap, with massive pay disparity between Local Training Initiative (LTI) Co-ordinators and those working in associated schemes such as Community Training Centres (CTCs) and Specialist Training such as The National Learning Network.
That’s the view of LTI co-ordinators in Dundalk, and Muirhevnamor LTI Co-ordinator, Gerry Bradley says the time has come for the disparity to finally be sorted out.
Mr Bradley outlined the background to the issue: ‘LTIs, CTCs and Specialist Training were under the control of FAS in the past, grouped together under their Community Training Programme. They all now come under the remit of the Education and Training Boards who currently receive funding for them through SOLAS.
‘LTIs are community-based training programmes and local community or other groups, such as the Muirhevnamor Community Council in my case, sponsor and run these and they are funded and part-governed through the ETBs, delivering nationally recognised QQI Accredited Training Programmes at Levels 3,4,and 5 primarily to people from marginalised or disadvantaged backgrounds.
‘ The Labour Court has already issued a ruling about the difference in pay, recommending, as far back as 2002, that LTI co-ordinators should receive an increase in pay, which happened; however a further linkage to CTC managers’ pay was recommended but was not implemented’.
The case was taken by ‘Managers of Genealogy and Heritage Centres’, which were a type of LTI manager whose programmes were involved in that field. Both they and the old Community Training Workshops, now Community Training Centres were funded by FAS. At present, contracts are generally of one year duration and are renewed annually thereafter if applications are successful.
Part of the grant paid to each of these groups accounts for the salaries of managers, assistant managers and tutors. The managers and tutors of CTC and the NLN have pay-scales that allow for increases in pay in line with the length of time employed. The managers of LTIs have no such pay-scales and over the years have fallen massively behind in the payment they receive for providing the exact same type of educational programmes as their contemporaries. The ETBs claim that SOLAS is responsible for LTI managers’ pay, and SOLAS says the ETBs are, meanwhile these staff are left in limbo.
The Labour Court recommended that ‘for future pay increases, the Genealogy and Heritage Centre Managers (LTI) should have a pay relationship with, and be linked proportionately to, the Community Training Workshop (CTC) managers. Any benefit to the claimants arising from the pay relationship with the Community Training Workshop (CTC) managers should be paid in accordance with the terms of the PFF.
Gerry said: ‘ This part was never implemented so the situation now exists where Community Training Centre managers with nine years service earn almost double what an LTI manager with the same service earns. So some of us like myself with 11 years-service as an LTI manager and my colleague in Cavan/Monaghan who has 31 years in the role, have no pay scale and it means that what we earn equates to much less than what a CTC Manager earns in their first year of their payscale. Tutors in CTC with no managerial responsibility who have ten years service earn over 60% more than LTI managers with the same service; indeed higher clerical staff in CTC with the same length of service earn considerably more than LTI managers. The LTIs, the CTCs and Specialist Training Programmes are funded through the Irish Government and the European Social Fund. Funding from Europe accounts for somewhat over 50% for this type of educational provision’.
In addition, Mr Bradley points to the fact that the European Social Fund, who provide a large amount of the LTIs funding, insisted several years ago that outside trainers and tutors brought in to teach specialist parts of the training courses such as First Aid, Customer Service or other classes who were independent contractors up to that time should from then on be considered as employees of the LTI and should pay their PRSI and taxes etc through the LTI payroll. These Tutors are paid the ETB hourly rate for Tutors. This rate is two and a half times the hourly rate paid to LTI managerial staff.
He said: ‘Despite managing every aspect of the course, teaching classes to the same group of Learners, recruiting, discipline, and looking after students, being responsible for training standards and quality control and completing all reporting and paperwork functions, LTI managers receive a fraction of the hourly rate parttime tutors on their courses do because of this disparity. As a result of the ESF ruling I as an LTI manager am required to pay a Tutor who I have employed two and a half times the hourly rate that I am paid to teach the same class and then I further manage every aspect of the training programme. It is a quite ridiculous situation and is the number one issue affecting the lifestyle and morale of around two hundred LTI managerial staff in Ireland who clearly deserve to be paid in a manner that addresses equality and parity of esteem. Ultimately this is something that might have to be addressed by the ESF through their audit requirements, and pursued through representations at EU level.
‘ The ESF has quite rightly insisted that tutors who provide education on the courses they fund should have the rights associated with being an employee of the programme. But the fact remains that managers of the courses funded by the ESF through LTIs are not getting paid the same as the CTC managers, as Specialist Training Managers and are quite alarmingly not even getting paid half as much as is paid to the tutors on their courses.
‘Muirhevnamor LTI, along with Job Focus and CREATE at the Redeemer Centre provide training and education to some of the most marginalised people in our communities, and we are proud to do that. But it turns out that the managers in these marginalised communities are being marginalised them- selves by SOLAS, the ETBs the Department of Education and the ESF because of the glaring inequalities they face regarding their pay and conditions.
‘Local Training Initiatives, Community Training Centres and Specialist Training providers such as The National Learning Network all do very valuable work and provide educational opportunities for people, many of whom are from marginalised backgrounds, helping them through educational and personal capacity building programmes to enter employment or to progress to further or higher education and to improved lifetime opportunities. LTIs are not in any way in conflict with CTCs or Specialist Training providers as all of these organisations are involved in very valuable work in the community sector and to a great degree complement each other. All of these organisations deserve to be properly paid for the provision of excellent, quality proofed services and to be validated for their commitment and professionalism. What LTI managerial staff are seeking is to be paid in a fair and equal manner for the provision of an equal service’.
The sponsor groups of each of the LTIs in Dundalk have written to LMETB asking them to address this situation on several occasions but to date they have had no reply.
Following a series of articles in the Argus over the last three weeks highlighting the work of the LTIs, we posed questions about the issue to a number of stakeholders, including the Louth Meath Education and Training Board (LMETB) and the Department of Education, but no responses was received by the deadline.
Trade unions IMPACT and SIPTU have written to Education Minister Richard Bruton seeking a meeting with him in the new Dail term to address this issue.