Today marks the centenary of the legislation that permitted Irish women to vote and stand in parliamentary elections for the first time. It’s also 100 years since the first woman MP was elected to Westminster.

Constance Georgine Markievicz was elected in a Dublin constituency, but never took her seat at Westminster. Instead, she joined the revolutionary first Dáil, becoming the first female TD.
The first of the commemoration events on women’s suffrage took place in Glasnevin Cemetery last Sunday (4th February). The event coincided with Constance Markievicz’s 150th birthday, but it also focused on the three issues she championed: labour, nationalism and suffrage.

ICTU general secretary Patricia King reflected on an industrial dispute with a manufacturer of rosary beads, which Markievicz was involved in. The event was also addressed by Sinn Féin president-elect Mary Lou McDonald, and Ivana Bacik, Labour senator and the chair of Votáil 100.

The speakers all reflected on current efforts for the political and economic advancement of women, but focused particularly on the current make-up of the Oireachtas.

Sunday’s event was the first of many commemoration events remembering the fight for women’s suffrage.

The failure of politicians and health service managers to place the health and social care professions at the centre of service planning will hamper the implementation of the ‘Slaintecare’ health reform programme, which gained cross-party political support last year, according to Fórsa.

Last week, the head of the union’s Health and Welfare division Éamonn Donnelly told a high-level gathering that the country’s 18,000 health and social care professionals were neglected in health service planning and delivery. He said 80-90% of final year health profession students were considering emigration as a more attractive option than working in the Irish health service.

The health and social care professions (HSCPs) include speech and language therapists, social care workers, social workers, psychologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, podiatrists, orthoptists, biochemists and audiologists. The Slaintecare programme envisages a major expansion of primary care and social care capacity, with free access to GP and hospital services within five years.

Fórsa has called for additional investment and recruitment to ease staffing shortages and bring down waiting times, as well as a sustained effort to demonstrate to young therapists, social workers and carers that there is a rewarding professional future for them in the Irish health and social care system.

Éamonn called on health minister Simon Harris, who spoke at the event, to immediately create a departmental post of Senior Advisor on Therapy Services. He told the conference, which was also addressed by senior managers from the HSE, Tusla and the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies, that health and social care professionals should be in leadership positions in the HSE and Department of Health.

“There is a real concern among the professions that their experience and contribution is being side-lined, to the detriment of patients and clients, in yet another new structure that puts all its focus on doctors – be they GPs or consultants – as the managers and epicentre of service delivery,” he said.

Fórsa listed a range of actions it says are necessary to realise the full potential of the professions in the delivery of Slaintecare and other health service improvements.

Read the full speech HERE.

Fórsa officials say they are encouraged by the high number of applications to the reactivated job evaluation scheme for health service clerical, administrative and management staff, which opened last year on foot of the union’s campaign.

The union says the success rate has so far been high, although the waiting times for completion of the process is significant due to huge pent-up demand.

Fórsa official Stephen O’Neill said the eight-year suspension of the scheme led to a large backlog of existing and potential applications from workers who have taken on substantial extra responsibilities as clerical and admin staff numbers fell dramatically during the crisis.

“The waiting time for an evaluation is currently around six months or so, although well over half of cases completed so far have led to an upgrading. Neither of these things comes as a huge surprise given the freeze on promotion and recruitment over many years,” he said.

The scheme, which is open to clerical and administrative grades III to VI, and related grades, offers staff the prospect of an upgrading if their job roles and responsibilities are found to have increased sufficiently.

Job evaluation allows the knowledge, skill and responsibilities associated with individual jobs – rather than grades or staff categories – to be assessed and appropriately rewarded. While a job evaluation doesn’t guarantee an upgrading, many health staff say their roles have grown considerably as they have taken on more work and responsibility over the years.

A Department of Public Expenditure and Reform analysis of the number and pay position of public service ‘new entrants’ is to be published by the end of March, following pressure from ICTU’s Public Services Committee. The report was originally planned for later in the year as the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) said it must take place within 12 months of the commencement of the agreement.

The new entrant pay scales were introduced without agreement by a previous Government in 2010. The new scales were set at 90% of the pre-existing scale points. This was opposed by unions at the time and no union agreed to the new terms.

The first opportunity to address the issue arose in talks on the Haddington Road Agreement in 2013. Unions secured an agreement to merge the new entrant pay scales with the pre-existing pay scales. The effect of the 2013 improvement was to place the new entrants on the old rates, albeit with two additional incremental points.

The PSSA requires the unions and management to discuss and agree on addressing the issue of the extended scales. Fórsa believes the solution must involve the removal of two increment points from the scale, creating faster progress up the pay scale.

The negotiations will, most likely, focus on which increments are removed. This is complicated by the vast differences in pay scale lengths for different civil and public service grades.

When unions met public service management on the issue last October, officials confirmed that 53,000 workers had been hired since the ‘new entrant’ scales were unilaterally introduced by the government in 2011.

Since that meeting, the department has been gathering data from all sectors to identify the incremental scale points of all new entrants. This should allow unions and management to examine the cost of potential solutions.

Fórsa has welcomed an official report that says a minimum 48% increase in the primary care workforce is needed between now and 2031, along with an extra 600 acute hospital beds. But the head of the union’s health division, Éamonn Donnelly, has also said a new approach to doctors’ contracts is needed to ease the pressure on health service waiting lists and overcrowding.

The report of the Health Service Capacity Review, which was published last week, said the public health system was operating at or above capacity across most services. It predicted that demand for services will grow significantly between now and 2031, and also called for 13,000 extra residential care beds, and a 120% increase in homecare provision, over the next 13 years.

The capacity review was commissioned by the health department on foot of a Programme for Government commitment. Its call for additional hospital bed capacity represents a break with official statements in recent years.

Speaking at a Fórsa conference for health and social care professionals last Thursday (1st February), Éamonn Donnelly championed the long-term vision of universal health care, free at the point of delivery, which was set out in last year’s Slaintecare report.

Although the report gained cross-party support, Donnelly said it could not be implemented unless GPs and consultants’ public contracts were developed to create an adequate number of doctors solely dedicated to the public health service.

“There surely is a case for state-employed GPs. Why should a patient require a private practice GP referral to access the public health system? In addition, consultant teams dedicated to the public health system would surely ease the pressure on waiting lists and overcrowding,” he said.

The report finds that, on top of existing capacity problems, Ireland’s growing and ageing population will result in a substantial increase in demand for health services. It said its estimates for required additional investment assumed that ongoing health service reforms would continue to improve and increase outputs.

Read the Health Service Capacity Review HERE.

Pilot studies established to test the feasibility of allowing public servants to convert some of their leave into flexitime are expected to commence this month and conclude in June. Fórsa believes the studies will confirm that it’s doable, and will then want to see the facility rolled out as widely as possible.

Management reluctantly agreed to undertake the pilots during negotiations that led to the ratification of the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA), which was overwhelmingly backed by members of Fórsa and other public service unions.

Unions believe a provision to convert annual leave into flexitime could help staff with a temporary need for more flexible working arrangements. The terms of reference for the pilot studies, which will take place in the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Kerry County Council, have been agreed with Fórsa and other unions.

It was one of two working time provisions in the PSSA, which also gives staff the option of a permanent return to ‘pre-Haddington Road’ hours on the basis of a pro-rata pay adjustment.

Although these improvements fell short of union demands for the full restoration of additional hours introduced under the Haddington Road Agreement in 2011, they at least give options to staff whose circumstances mean time is more important to them than money.

Fórsa members can save lots of money with our enhanced package of financial benefits provided or negotiated by the union. Some of these are free to all Fórsa members. Others are optional benefits, available only to Fórsa members, which can mean savings on insurance, salary protection, additional pension coverage and more.

Fórsa members are entitled to*

• €5,000 personal accident cover
• €5,000 critical illness or death benefit
• Spouses covered for death benefit too
• €5,000 illness benefit if you’re out of work for more than 12 months
• Evacuation or repatriation expenses up to €250,000 for members deceased, seriously injured or ill abroad

Free Fórsa helplines

• 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
• Free legal help in bodily injury cases  1850-77-66-44
• Free 24/7 legal advice helpline   1850-77-66-44
• Free 24/7 confidential counselling helpline 1850-77-66-55
• Free 24/7 domestic assistance helpline  1850-77-66-44

Fórsa members can opt into Fórsa-facilitated financial benefits

• Car insurance
• Home insurance
• Travel insurance
• Additional pension benefits
• Salary protection and life cover.

* Terms, conditions and some restrictions apply.

Get more information from your Fórsa official or representative.

• Public ownership of Irish Water
• Government action plan on jobs
• Bogus self-employment
• Tax relief on union subscriptions
• Investment in early childhood education including a pre-Budget briefing
• National Civil Aviation Development Forum
• Social Protection appeal on behalf of Coillte employees
• Gender Pay Gap Reporting Bill 2017

The Department of Health has prepared draft regulations to extend statutory regulation to counsellors and psychotherapists. The minister of health expects them to be adopted by the Oireachtas later this year.

Speaking at a Fórsa conference on the future of the health and social care professions last week, Simon Harris said he expected registration boards of all 14 professions cited in the Health and Social Care Professionals Act, 2005 to be in place by the end of 2018.

The minister said he was also aware that other professions – including play therapists, audiologists and creative arts therapists – had also made a case to be included in the regulatory regime run by CORU.

The regulatory regime sets standards of professional conduct and establishes investigation procedures for cases where a practitioner’s ‘fitness to practise’ is questioned. Fórsa members in the regulated professions have free access to an insurance-based protection scheme that guarantees legal advice and representation in such situations.

In the last edition of the Fórsa members' news bulletin we asked Fórsa members “should healthcare professionals be compelled to have the flu vaccine?” on foot of an announcement by the Minister for Health Simon Harris that he would consider making it obligatory for healthcare professionals.

Almost half of our survey respondents disagreed that health workers should be compelled to get the flu vaccine and voted ‘No,' while 28% voted ‘Yes.’ However, a further 23% of respondents agreed that the vaccine should be mandatory for anyone working with the general public.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has criticised the Government’s response to the housing and homelessness crisis, saying it is characterised by “gestures and systemic policy failure.” Speaking at a major housing conference last month, ICTU general secretary Patricia King said official action “lacks the urgency and overall coherence that this very real emergency demands.”

Fórsa was well represented at the ICTU event, which featured contributions from all the major political parties as well as housing and homeless agencies.

Patrica said the latest Government initiative – making limited credit available to home buyers, through local authorities – was “no more than a gesture” given the scale of the problem. “The problem is a severe lack of supply of public housing and the fact that the state has abandoned housing policy to developers. Lives are being damaged and destroyed and a whole generation of younger workers now wonders whether they will ever be in position to find suitable, secure and affordable accommodation,” she said.

The conference endorsed plans for a national trade union campaign, which will include lobbying TDs at constituency level. Fórsa intends to coordinate its contribution to the campaign through branch campaign officers. The branch campaign officer role was established last year to coordinate local participation in the union’s national campaigns, and to boost the activist involvement and geographical spread of Fórsa campaigning efforts.