Speaking to the Oireachtas education committee yesterday (19th November), Fórsa called for a review of education department guidance to schools on the provision and use of PPE.

A realistic and acceptable approach to a new public service agreement does not mean ruling out pay improvements, according to Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan.

Fórsa, which represents 11,000 special needs assistants (SNAs) nationwide, has begun to provide medical grade face masks to members in schools that have failed to provide them.

Fórsa’s NEC took the opportunity yesterday to praise workers in all sectors for their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Proposing the motion, Fórsa vice president Margaret Coughlan saluted workers in all areas of the public, private and community sectors “who rose to the many challenges presented by the pandemic, often in the face of risk to themselves and their families.”

Fórsa has called for pilot projects in public and private sector employments to explore the feasibility of introducing a four-day week without loss of pay or productivity.

The outgoing Fórsa president has highlighted the importance of co-operation between staff working in clerical and administrative grades across the public sector, in a keynote speech to the union’s biennial national conference yesterday.

Fórsa has a new team of officers, elected by the union’s branches, who were formally adopted at the union’s virtual national conference yesterday (19th November). 

Fórsa’s five-year strategic plan, sets out Fórsa’s goals for the next half-decade, was presented to delegates at this year’s virtual biennial conference.