Workers now enjoy a strengthened ‘right to disconnect’ under a new code of practice launched by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last week.

Fórsa and other unions have long-campaigned for the code, which means employees will not have to routinely perform work outside their normal working hours. It also warns employers not to penalise staff for refusing to deal with work matters outside of normal working hours.

It adds that workers should not be obliged to respond immediately to emails, telephone calls or other messages when not at work. The code has already come into effect, and it applies to all employees regardless of whether they work remotely or not.

Although the code does not establish a statutory right to disconnect, an employers’ failure to follow its provisions can be sited in complaints to the WRC, the Labour Court or the legal courts.

Fórsa deputy general secretary Matt Staunton welcomed the new code, saying it was a massive step towards improving the work-life balance of employees.

“The pandemic has brought to the fore increasing issues around routinely working longer hours than obligated to, and employees feeling like they can never truly switch off. Fórsa welcomes this new code and calls on employers to actively engage with their employees and use the code as a basis to develop the appropriate working practices,” he said.

The code also highlights the major responsibility on part of management to supervise working time, but reminds employees of their own responsibility to be mindful of other peoples’ right to disconnect.

ICTU’s social policy officer Laura Bambrick said the code would help tackle the longstanding issue of workers regularly doing unpaid overtime. “When the occasional intrusion on a worker’s personal time, to get a project finished or an order filled, becomes the norm this becomes a health and safety issue,” she said.

The code of practice was signed by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, who also welcomed further consultation on plans for a legal right to request remote working, a measure that Fórsa sought in its lengthy submission to a Government consultation last year.

The union has since lodged a formal claim for comprehensive agreed remote working guidelines with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

“We are calling for proper engagement with unions and other stakeholders on the establishment and implementation of developed working practices to ensure that fair access to remote working and proper protections for all staff are implemented, regardless of where they work, to bring Ireland on par with European best practice,” said Matt.

Read the WRC code of practice HERE.

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan is one of the union representatives on a newly-established high-level working group, which is to review Ireland’s arrangements for trade union recognition and collective bargaining.

The group, which also includes employer and Government representatives, will begin its work this month and produce an interim report in the summer. A final report is scheduled to follow soon after that.

Unions have sought stronger workers’ rights to union representation on pay and working conditions since a 2007 Supreme Court ruling said existing legal protections were unconstitutional.

Despite some legal improvements under the 2011-2016 Government, Irish workers still have weaker rights than most of their counterparts in Europe.

In short, workers here have a legal right to join a union, but employers can’t be compelled to recognise or negotiate with unions even if most of their employees want that.

And some employers continue to mount legal challenges to the legal protections that do exist. The Supreme Court is set to rule on a challenge to legal minimum wage-setting provisions after employers in the electrical contracting sector won a High Court case last year.

The new working group has been established under the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF), Ireland’s highest-level forum for policy discussions between employers, unions and government.

Once something of a talking shop, the LEEF came into its own during the pandemic when unions were able to work through the forum to reach agreement on far-reaching Covid-related workplace safety protections and shape income supports.

The working group will look at trade union recognition and its implications for collective bargaining, the adequacy of the existing workplace relations framework, and legal and constitutional impediments to reform. It will also review existing statutory wage-setting mechanisms and proposals for reform.

Kevin Callinan said developments in the EU and United States demanded a rethink of Ireland’s model of attracting inward investment and recruiting talent, with a greater emphasis on collectivism and quality of life.

“Ireland has weak collective bargaining rights compared to many EU states. Workers should have the right to choose to have a union negotiate on their behalf, and international research also shows that collective bargaining can improve productivity, enhance innovation, and deliver greater stability for businesses and their staff,” he said.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s move to establish the process was no doubt influenced by European Commission proposals to legislate in the area. If adopted, a proposed EU directive on low pay, which would trump existing Irish law, would require Ireland and other EU member states to take actions to increase collective bargaining coverage.

A number of EU member states, including Ireland, have sought to downgrade the legal strength of the Commissions’ initiative.

Fórsa is conducting research on legal aspects of the issue in advance of the working group’s first meeting.

Fórsa’s national executive has agreed to fund the Recover Irish Aviation campaign to the tune of €25,000. This is in addition to funds already allocated by the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association.

Recover Irish Aviation, aims to secure a package of supports to address the financial damage that the Covid crisis has inflicted upon the industry and to ensure “extensive planning to re-build Irish air connectivity from current levels.”

The campaign organisers, who include Ialpa representative Simon Croghan, say a collaborative approach involving all stakeholders is necessary so that the aviation sector will have a roadmap to work towards future recovery.

“The Irish economy will not recover if Irish aviation does not survive. Significant support will be required to ensure this,” he said.

Fórsa represents over 80,000 members, including around 5,000 workers in airlines, airports, air navigation bases, aviation regulatory bodies, and air traffic control.

The union has warned that thousands of jobs dependent on aviation could be lost permanently unless the Government acts to support the sector though a second summer of inactivity caused by Covid-related travel restrictions, most recently at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications Networks in February.

The campaign highlights that Ireland has a world beating aviation sector built up over decades. “The innovation and hard work of our aviation community has left us with industry-leading airlines, first class airports and a dominant aircraft leasing industry, supporting 143,000 jobs and €17 billion (or 6.8%) of Ireland’s GDP, and connectivity which enables our island economy and society to flourish.”

Fórsa’s head of services and enterprises Ashley Connolly said the aviation industry will be vital to Ireland’s economic recovery, which itself will need to recover from the devastating effects of public health protection measures: “As the vaccination program is rolled out and we finally emerge from the awful effects of this pandemic it should be possible to devise a carefully phased plan for a better future,” she said.

The divisional executive has asked Fórsa members to back the campaign by signing its petition, which is available HERE.

Unions have called for a minimum of ten days paid leave each year for victims of domestic violence. An Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) submission to the Government, published at the end of last month, highlighted the disproportionate impact that Covid-19 restrictions have had on victims of violence, harassment and abuse.

A recent survey found that almost 15% of women in Ireland have experienced physical violence by a partner, while over 30% had experienced psychological violence.

The survey also showed that over 30% of employed women had experienced psychological violence by a partner since age 15, and some 25% of employed women know a victim of domestic violence where they work or study.

The figures in the report highlight the direct and indirect impact of domestic violence on work attendance and productivity. Respondents also reported that the abuse continued at their workplace including being harassed through phone calls and emails.

The survey results informed ICTU’s submission on the issue of paid domestic violence leave, which also includes calls for information on how to respond and support colleagues experiencing violence.

At present, women have to take annual leave, and unpaid leave once that was exhausted. In some cases they may leave or lose their job.

The ICTU submission calls for clear workplace polices and a range of supports, including paid leave and safety planning, to help employers fulfil their workplace safety obligations and manage risk.

Studies of Australian employers who have paid domestic violence leave arrangements found that the average number of days taken is between two and three.

Fórsa has supported ICTU’s call for a statutory annual entitlement of up to 10 days' paid domestic violence leave.

Meanwhile, equality minister Roderic O’Gorman has pledged that legislative proposals for a statutory entitlement to paid domestic violence leave would be brought forward by the end of this year. Speaking at an ICTU event last month, he said he was also seeking employers’ views of employers on the potential impact of the initiative.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to undertake an investigation into paid leave and support for victims, and commits to a statutory entitlement or paid domestic violence leave to be introduced by end of this year.

Paid domestic violence leave has been on the international trade union agenda for many years, most recently in the negotiations on ILO Convention 190, which addresses violence and harassment at work. It recommends specifies measures that should be taken to mitigate the impacts of domestic violence at work, including leave for victims, flexible work arrangements, and the inclusion of domestic violence in workplace risk assessments.

A few governments have risen to the challenge, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Read ICTU’s submission HERE.

Fórsa is continuing internal consultations about the make-up of ‘bargaining units’ under the sectoral bargaining provisions of the new agreement, Building Momentum, which covers staff in non-commercial State agencies.

The agreement establishes a ‘sectoral bargaining fund’ worth 1% of basic pay, on top of two general round pay adjustments worth 1% each. It can be used to deal with outstanding adjudications, recommendations and claims relevant to specific groups of workers within the local authority sector. Or groups can opt to take the 1% as a straight pay increase.

The first step is to identify the different groups of grades and staff categories. Most Fórsa members in the sector are linked to civil service grades for pay purposes, and the union officials are liaising across the sectors.

The approach to clerical, administrative and executive grades will be common across all sectors, as large numbers of staff work in these grades in local authorities, health education, and the civil service, as well as the non-commercial State sector.

Once the ‘sectoral bargaining units’ are agreed with management, work will begin on how the additional 1% of pay will be distributed through sectoral bargaining.

Agreement on the shape of the sectoral bargaining groups is meant to be concluded by the end of next month. Payment of any sectoral awards is scheduled for 1st February 2022.

Discussions on the establishment of an independent body charged with addressing the so-called ‘Haddington Road hours’ are also underway. The body will take submissions from management and unions representing grades whose hours were increased under the 2013 Haddington Road deal.

It will make recommendations by the end of 2021. Rollout of these recommendations will begin within the lifetime of the agreement, with €150 million available to commence implementation during 2022.

The Government’s new rural development plan, announced last week, will include a major focus on attracting remote workers to rural communities, with a significant portion of the plan focused on public sector workers.

Our Rural Future is described as a blueprint to transform rural Ireland over the next five years. The plan is designed to revitalise town centres, boosting rural jobs through adventure tourism, the ‘green’ economy and island development.

On remote working, Our Rural Future includes plans to move to 20% remote working in the public sector this year, with further annual increases over the next five years. It promises the introduction of legislation to give employees the right to request remote work.

There are also commitments to review the tax arrangements for remote working, for both employers and employees, as part of Budget 2022, and to provide funding to local authorities to run targeted campaigns to attract remote workers to their area.

Fórsa’s head of civil service, Derek Mullen, said the plan did not lack ambition, but would need to ensure appropriate consultation with worker representatives to be successful.

“Fórsa members throughout the country have worked very hard over the past year, adapting to significantly new ways of working, and have achieved high levels of quality service delivery, despite the emergency conditions under which those changes took place.

“For some workers, a return to normality includes a return to their usual work environment, with greater levels of collaboration and social contact.

"Many have also been able to find ways of working more conducive to striking a healthy balance between work and home life with the elimination of lengthy commutes, and many can now see the potential benefits of a hybrid model of working.

“However, it is important that flexibility and choice on the part of employees is central to the implementation of this plan. In that context, we need to have dialogue, so that the workers who’ve risen to these huge recent challenges are represented,” he said.

Hubs

The plan includes the establishment of a network of 400 remote working rural ‘hubs’, including some located in repurposed vacant buildings in town centres. These hubs will enable more people to live and work in rural communities, and Our Rural Future includes a pilot for co-working and hot-desking hubs for public servants in regional towns.

The plan also commits to examining the introduction of specific incentives to attract remote workers and mobile talent to live in rural towns, while the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta are to promote and enable the uptake of remote working across their client base.

Announcing the launch of the plan, the Government’s statement said it aims to facilitate more working in rural Ireland “with good career prospects, regardless of where their employer is headquartered”, with rural towns as vibrant hubs for commercial and social activity, and rural communities having an active role in shaping the future for rural Ireland.

Commenting on this aspect of the plan Derek said that the Civil Service-wide Mobility Policy was potentially a good vehicle to attract remote workers to more rural communities.

Investment

Our Rural Future is described as a “whole-of-Government policy for rural Ireland,” reflecting changes in living and working patterns during Covid-19. The Government says the new plan is designed to help rural Ireland to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, enabling the long-term development of rural areas, and creating “more resilient rural economies and communities for the future.”

The plan is to be underpinned by investment in high-speed broadband, remote working facilities, job creation, town centre regeneration, community development, improvements in regional and local roads, new cycling and walking infrastructure, expanded rural transport services, funding for tourism, culture and heritage projects, and a just transition to a climate-neutral society.

Fórsa members and staff were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of former IMPACT president Finbarr O'Driscoll, who died this week. A former councillor and mayor of Cobh, Finbarr was a loyal member and avid union activist.

Fórsa official Peter Nolan paid tribute to his long-time friend and union colleague, describing him as a “quintessential Corkonian” with a great conviction for social justice, balanced with a great sense of humour and acerbic wit.

“We are all very sad to hear of the passing of a great colleague. I knew Finbarr for over four decades. He would often strategise union tactics in flowing Latin quotations, which sometimes left employers – and even union colleagues – mystified but always made them sure.

“Described by many as a great trade unionist. He was enormously proud of leading the union as president. He did so with great distinction, and served as mayor of Cobh with the same commitment and skill,” he said

Our thoughts are with Finbarr’s wife Doris, children Alan, Hilary and Cian and all his extended family and friends at this time.

Fórsa is seeking the negotiation of agreed and comprehensive guidelines on remote working for application across the civil and public service. The union’s general secretary Kevin Callinan wrote to public expenditure minister Michael McGrath last week, and asked him to open an early engagement with Fórsa on its claim.

He said the claim was designed “to reach agreement on a clear and consistent public service approach to remote working, based on principles of fair access, adequate employee protections, and robust measures to underpin continued public service quality and productivity.”

The union wants discussions to take place under the auspices of the new public service agreement, Building Momentum, which commits management and unions to establish the public service as a “driver of best practice” on remote work.

Fórsa’s move came in the same week that the union welcomed the publication of the plan for rural Ireland, which further outlined the Government’s thinking on remote work in the public service. The union’s detailed claim seeks agreement under 20 broad headings, including:

• The consistent application of agreed guidelines for identifying functions that can be performed remotely, and for selecting staff to be allocated to home working arrangements
• Fair access and the right to request remote work
• The principal that individual employees can decline remote work arrangements
• Compliance with health and safety legislation, including specific measures relating to mental health, pregnant women, young workers, and workers with disabilities
• Specific advice on compliance with working time legislation and the ‘right to disconnect’
• Agreed guidance on flexible work arrangements, work attendance and time measurement
• The provision of management training and supports to line managers
• The promotion of regular, quality communications between line managers and their staff, and the inclusion of remote workers in collective workplace activities including business meetings and training
• Strong direction that staff who work remotely should routinely spend some time in the workplace
• Full transparency and agreement over the use of any surveillance products or practices, and a guarantee that employees’ rights to privacy and a reasonable work-life balance will be protected, along with full compliance with the provisions of data protection legislation.

Fórsa says any agreement “should preclude individual departments, organisations or managers from opting out of some or all elements of an agreed approach unless an objective rationale is demonstrated.”

Making Remote Work, the Government’s remote working strategy, which was published in January, developed Programme for Government commitments on remote working and pledged to make remote working the norm for 20% of public sector staff.

Read the Fórsa remote working claim HERE. 

Debenhams workers today (9th April) mark the first anniversary of the store going into liquidation. Next month sees the anniversary of the start of their strike action, with no negotiated settlement yet in sight.

Earlier last year, Debenhams went into liquidation with the loss of over 1,000 jobs. The sudden announcement, coupled with the Coivd-19 pandemic, denied the workers access a collective redundancy agreement negotiated by their union Mandate.

The staff want the Government to make a recently-established €3 million training fund available for cash payments, plus legislation to make sure this never happens again.

Today’s anniversary will see workers and supporters stage socially-distanced gatherings at the stores. An online rally, via the Stand With Debenhams Facebook page, is also set to take place, with a number of trade union and public representatives speaking alongside worker representatives.

Mandate wants the store and its liquidator to honour redundancy terms agreed with the union in 2016. The redundant staff says Debenhams Ireland had assets in its stock and fixtures that could be used towards honouring its commitments to staff.

Earlier this year, Mandate’s national executive council, and the union’s Debenhams negotiating team, wrote to Fórsa to thank its members for a €10,000 donation towards the Debenhams workers’ strike fund. The Fórsa executive had earlier sanctioned the contribution as an act of solidarity.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has welcomed the news that the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill is back on the agenda, following the Government’s announcement that amendments to the lapsed 2019 bill have been approved.

The original bill completed committee stage in July 2019, but following the 2020 general election has remained in a state of stasis.

The revised legislation will require organisations to report on the gender pay differentials in their organisations, setting out pay differences – including bonuses – between female and male employees.

The requirement will initially apply to organisations with 250 or more staff, but will extend to organisations with 50 or more employees over time. Organisations will be able to indicate the reasons for any gender pay differentials they report.

The newly-approved changes will see enhanced enforcement powers on gender pay gap reporting, by providing a more comprehensive definition of a public body to ensure that the provisions of the bill will apply to all public bodies.

The revised bill will also address enforcement issues, by giving expanded powers to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC).

Ireland

Meanwhile, Eurostat has found that Ireland's gender pay gap fell 17.3% to 14.4% in the decade to 2017. That puts it below the EU average of 14.9%.

But women persistently earn less than men. Contributing factors include part-time work, gender segregation in the labour market, family-work life balance, and issues around power and influence amongst others.

While broadly welcoming the development, unions will be seeking additional enhancements. An ICTU spokesperson said they would be seeking a formal role for trade union involvement in compiling gender pay gap data and in negotiating action plans to tackle any gaps identified.

Fórsa’s equality officer Ashley Connelly agrees that unions need to have a formal role in the pay gap reporting process.

“With the increased challenges from Covid-19, there has never been a more important time for employers across Ireland to focus on addressing the barriers to women's and men's full and equal participation in the workplace. It is vital that we all take direct and proactive steps to make this a reality across society,” she said.

Read more HERE.

For more information on the Gender Pay Gap in Ireland click HERE. 

Ireland’s waiting times for hospital treatments are way longer than previously reported, according to new research from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

By measuring the wait between specialist assessment and treatment, rather the time spent on a waiting list, the research found that a large proportion of patients wait for more than 12 months for treatment.

The researchers looked at waiting times for hip replacements, knee replacements and cataract surgery.

Almost a quarter of patients waiting for knee replacement had to wait for more than a year, compared to 17% of those having a hip replacement or cataract surgery.

A new method to gauge waiting times was developed using data from the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) and OECD health statistics, and calculated the number of days a patient had spent on a waiting list before hospital admission.

ESRI recorded the complete waiting time for public patients who had been treated, and compared it to the waiting times for patients still on the list.

It revealed that Ireland compares less favourably with other OECD countries, with the third longest median waiting time out of 17 countries.

The median waiting time is 182 days which is above the OECD average of 116 days.

The proportion of patients in Ireland, who were admitted for treatment in 2018, and who waited longer than three months for treatment, was 79%, compared to the OECD average of 52%.

Ireland’s current reporting system for publicly-funded elective hospital treatments measures how long someone has so far been on a waiting list, rather than the total time they wait for treatment.

It also says Ireland’s relatively young age profile means that demand for hospital services will likely increase in future.

Read the full report HERE.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has sought stronger measures to support workers affected by the transition to a carbon-free economy following the recent publication of the Government’s published Climate Action bill. The legislation sets out legally-binding commitments to achieve a climate neutral economy by 2050.

ICTU said the definition of a ‘just transition’ in the current bill is weak compared to the standard international definition. And both ICTU and Friends of the Earth have called for improvements around the wording.

Unions have also called for a representative body to drive the transition process, similar to the Scottish Just Transition Commission.

The new legislation aims to achieve net zero emissions, or climate neutrality. It also targets a 51% emissions’ reduction by 2030. It will require Government department and agencies to bring forward carbon budgets and make all plans consistent with the Paris Agreement and other international agreements.

It’s a significant strengthening of the framework for climate action by the State, which aims to enable Ireland to meet its EU and international climate obligations.

Key highlights include putting the commitment to climate-neutrality on a statutory basis, a legal requirement for Government to adopt a series of five-year carbon budgets, the introduction of emission ceilings for individual sectors, and strengthening the role of the Climate Change Advisory Council.

Friends of the Earth director Oisín Coghlan called the bill a big step in the right direction, and described it as “a framework to drive action, rather than list of actions itself.”

He said it established a duty on the Government to provide plans to meet the targets, a role for an expert advisory council to monitor progress and advise the Government, and a robust parliamentary accountability, a way for government to be held to account for delivery.

Local authorities will have to prepare climate action plans with both mitigation and adaptation measures, while planning rules will be strengthened to include climate actions.

“The bill is not perfect, but it is much better than the current law, and will drive action in Ireland the right way, which hasn’t been done so far,” he said.

The Government has also launched a public consultation on the new climate action plan. It will run for eight weeks until 18th May.

Responding to the new emission targets, ICTU general secretary Patricia King said the government must also seek to develop a new, overarching policy for the energy sector that sets out specific roles for publicly owned utilities, and which would maximise the opportunities in renewable energy generation for workers and communities across the country.

Get full details HERE.

Workers who wish to join Fórsa can to do so using a new ‘join online’ function on the union’s website.

Going live with the new system follows several months of research, preparation and testing aimed at making it easier than ever to join the union. It also goes live as the union continues to process a large number of new membership applications, as interest in joining the union has surged since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.

Fórsa’s general secretary Kevin Callinan commented: “The current crisis has created the necessity to be able to carry out our business in different ways. Work on this project had commenced before the Covid-19 crisis took hold, and its completion marks a vital step as we tackle the challenges of living in changed times.

“We can see that more people want to join a union in response to what’s happening in the wider economy. It’s vital that they can take those initial steps quickly and easily, and making the membership application process more accessible is part of that process.

“This is a crucial new venture to enable Fórsa to substantially increase our membership - and to strengthen the union’s hand - at a critical time in the union’s development,” he said.

The online facility is a streamlined and simplified membership application process, and will be the quickest and easiest way to join the union. All incoming applications will continue to be subject to check-off and approval by Fórsa branches and the national executive committee, while the new online system is designed to ease the administrative burden on branches.

You can join Fórsa online at https://join.forsa.ie/

Fórsa is here to protect you if you have problems arising from the coronavirus or other workplace issues. The best way to contact the union at this time is HERE.

We will deal with queries as quickly as we can but, needless to say, the union will prioritise cases where members’ jobs and incomes are at immediate risk – as well as any serious health and safety issues that may arise.

Fórsa has cancelled all face-to-face meetings for the time being. The union is redeploying its staff to prioritise engagement with management on proposals arising from the Covid-19 public health crisis, and to provide rapid and efficient responses to members’ queries and concerns.

Fórsa's main phone line (01 817 1500) is now open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively members can use the Contact Us page on the Fórsa website to submit queries directly to the relevant division within Fórsa and this remains the most efficient way to access advice directly.

Wherever possible, Fórsa staff have been equipped to work remotely. Therefore, members should not attend Fórsa offices at this time. If you have a query or concern, the best way to raise it is to contact the union HERE.