NEU Northern Ireland staff

Pauline has led NEU in Northern Ireland as regional secretary since 2022 and is NEU’s negotiator within the NITC and Teachers Negotiating Committee. Prior to her position in the Northern Ireland Office she was the Regional Secretary for London.

Alastair Donaghy has been a Regional Officer for NEU since 2007 and is the lead official for organising, recruitment, and training. He is a TUC Accredited Tutor and delivers a range of courses to members and representatives.

Previously, he spent 20 years in the civil service trade unions, and the community sector, building up a specialist knowledge in pay, pensions, and employment law. He is responsible for managing member queries and casework, dealing with cases up to independent appeals, and employment tribunals. Alastair also sits as a member of the LRA Independent Appeals Panel.

Alastair represents NEU on a range of negotiating forums with employers, and is the NEU representative on the NI Teachers’ Pension Scheme Board.

Danielle Black joined NEU in 2021, and is responsible for casework, national training, recruitment and organising. She represents the union on a range of negotiating forums and sits on the LRA Independent Appeals Panel. Danielle is staff lead for Disability, New Professionals and Young Workers and the Women’s Organising Forum.

She previously worked for the Bar of Northern Ireland and Ulster University Students’ Union, where she was responsible for the student advice service and driving positive change in Higher Education.

Simon Salter has been Regional Support Officer in Northern Ireland since 2018. Simon is normally the first point of contact at the NEU’s Belfast Office, managing the office phones and offering members a wide range of support and advice, relating to employment law. 

He specialises in time budget queries, developing an inhouse calculator used to analyse workload expectations using the school calendar, timetable, and time budgets. He represents the NEU and NITC in the Temporary and Substitute Review and is also on a working group tasked with replacing the current NISTR system.