LES tender success for community sector
by Niall Shanahan
 
Fórsa official Lynn Coffey hailed the outcome saying “I am in no doubt, that keeping private companies out of these services at this tendering stage has only been achieved because of the interventions made by Fórsa and other unions to protect these services,” she said.
Fórsa official Lynn Coffey hailed the outcome saying “I am in no doubt, that keeping private companies out of these services at this tendering stage has only been achieved because of the interventions made by Fórsa and other unions to protect these services,” she said.

There was good news for local employment service (LES) providers following the recently completed second round of a tendering process run by the Department of Social Protection. All the contracts tendered were secured by existing LES providers, many of whom were competing against private companies.

 

Fórsa official Lynn Coffey hailed the outcome.

 

“I am in no doubt, that keeping private companies out of these services at this tendering stage has only been achieved because of the interventions made by Fórsa and other unions to protect these services,” she said.

 

But she warned that a number of job clubs were now set to close, and that the union would now direct its efforts at securing decent redundancy terms for workers who have provided this vital service on a community not-for-profit basis for many years.

 

The joint union campaign by Fórsa and Siptu to protect local employment services (LES) and job clubs has been running since last year, as unions campaigned against the Government-imposed tendering process for LES and job clubs.

 

Unions had cautioned Government on the risk privatising LES, saying that job losses and a diminished employment service were likely if private companies took over the services.

 

Thanking members for their efforts in the campaign, Lynn asked them to stick with the campaign effort to secure better redundancy terms for job club colleagues.

 

She asked them to write to their local TDs using a template provided by the union. “The more individual members who send a copy of this letter to their local TD, the greater impact this campaign can achieve,” she said

 

You can find a link to the template letter by clicking HERE:

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