Additional working time introduced in the civil service in 2013 will no longer be worked with effect from next Friday (1st July), when thousands of civil servants will see their working time restored to pre-austerity levels.

Fórsa and other public service unions are expecting contact from the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told RTÉ that the Government was prepared to make an improved offer in pay talks.

Fórsa officials have been negotiating departmental blended working arrangements following March’s agreement on a civil service-wide framework.

Despite what you hear in the media, it’s not all doom and gloom in the passport office services, where Fórsa members are dealing with 4,000 to 6,000 passport applications a day.

A claim for an allowance for agriculture department technical officers is awaiting an adjudication hearing.

Fórsa has backed the growing calls for domestic violence leave legislation. The union’s national secretary Ashley Connolly said the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the need for a better response to victims of domestic violence.

Union membership is becoming an increasingly female phenomenon, as there are now more women than men in trade unions. That’s according to the latest findings from the UCD Smurfit business school.