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Fórsa will ballot health and social care professionals (HSCPs) for industrial action if the health department proceeds with the recruitment of a chief nursing officer (CNO) on the basis of the current job description, and prior to appointing a specific HSCP advisor to the department.

The CNO post, which is currently being advertised, would subsume all other health and social care professions under the authority of a chief nursing officer.

Speaking at a meeting of the union’s HSCP vocational groups in Dublin this week, Fórsa’s head of health, Éamonn Donnelly, said there was a “pressing need to ballot” in response to an attempt to “thoroughly diminish the autonomy and professional leadership of HSCPs.”

“The proposal marks a serious and unacceptable breach of trust by the department, and we have to take a stand. Fórsa will not allow independent health professions to become a subset of nursing, as they would under this proposal.

“Once again, the minister and his department have demonstrated their utter ignorance of how these vital and independent professions operate, not to mention their value to health service users and the entire health service,” he said.

The health and social care professions include assessment officers, dietitians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, social workers, social care professionals, speech and language therapists and others.

Writing to the department’s top official last week, Éamonn said the scope of the proposed CNO post was completely at odds with existing proposals for the creation of a HSCP advisory post to advocate for the professions and advise the department.

He said the post being advertised gives responsibility for the leadership of HSCP regulation and workforce development to the CNO, who would also be responsible for advising the department on health and social care issues.

The advertisement for the post adds that the department’s social care advisor would report to the CNO.

“HSCPs are autonomous disciplines and they must have their own reporting advisory and advocacy stream. The proposed CNO post would totally dilute this autonomy, and it’s simply not acceptable,” said Éamonn.

In his letter to the department, Éamonn said the model now proposed would also inhibit the development of policies set out in the Sláintecare programme, which would establish HSCPs as leaders in service delivery in integrated hospital and community healthcare settings.

Fórsa’s health team recently reached agreement on the introduction of an HSE standard operating procedure (SOP) for assessing the needs of children with disabilities, in order to protect health and social care professionals (HSCPs) from failing to comply with their legal obligations under the Disability Act (2005).

The outcome will also see the appointment of an initial extra 100 HSCPs, and a review of staff and resource issues related to the introduction of the new procedures.

The union sought legal advice on the SOP against a background of strong HSCP reservations about delivering quality assessments and services in a hugely under-resourced and understaffed system.

But Fórsa’s legal team found that the SOP is compatible with the Disability Act, and that health professionals could put themselves at risk of personal liability if the procedures were ignored.

In the light of this advice, and in consultation with representatives of all the professions concerned, the union won important additional safeguards in discussions with the HSE.

First, Fórsa sought and received HSE management’s written confirmation that liability for “complaints or challenges” associated with the operation of the SOP “will rest with the HSE,” and not with individual health professionals.

Second, the union won a commitment to a review of the SOP under a Fórsa-recommended independent chair. The review body will be made up of equal representation from HSE officials and Fórsa and its health professionals.

The review will make an interim report within six months, although the union also has an explicit written assurance that HSCPs can raise concerns, through their union or with their line manager, at any time.

Staffing gaps

The review will address staff and infrastructural resource issues, beyond the 100 agreed extra posts, and examine assessment of needs activity with a focus on the numbers of assessments and compliance with statutory timeframes set out in the Disability Act.

These legal timeframes, which say assessments should be made within three months, are reflected in the SOP. They raised alarm bells with the union and its members because of huge resource constraints across the health and social care professions.

Fórsa believes that the review mechanism now in place provides a formal time-bound mechanism to address this growing problem in the context of the SOP.

In light of the agreement, the union has lifted its earlier instruction that members should not cooperate with the SOP.

Wider issues

In the wider industrial relations arena, the union has also pressed for robust recruitment and retention measures for the professions, placing the issue at the heart of its agenda for talks on a new public service pay agreement.

It also highlighted the issue in its general election 2020 campaigning, when it raised HSCP staff shortages with all the main political parties and their leaders.

Fórsa official Catherine Keogh said professionals’ fears about the SOP were based on their front-line experience of trying to provide a first-class service with third-rate resourcing.

“The SOP is compatible with the law, but that doesn’t address well-founded concerns about its potential negative impact on service quality. We have acted to protect staff from legal liability, while using the process to build another mechanism to address staff shortages and other resource constraints,” she said.

Meanwhile, the union is addressing professionals’ issues on other fronts including the commencement of a review, which will benefit individual HSCPs and help ease retention problems. It is also actively negotiating over recruitment processes, including the national panel-based system.

Fórsa also offers its members in the professions free guidance and legal representation if they become subject to ‘fitness to practice’ proceedings the CORU system.

Find out how Fórsa will support you under CORU ‘fitness to practice’ proceedings HERE.

Tens of thousands of childcare educators and providers joined parents earlier this month to protest about the high cost of childcare and low pay in the sector. Over 60% of childcare educators in Ireland earn below the living wage, while parents pay some of the highest fees in Europe.

The Dublin demonstration saw protestors calling on the incoming government to increase pay and funding for the childcare sector. They also called for more sustainability in the childcare profession.

The huge number of protestors also sent a clear and direct message to the incoming government that the issues in the childcare sector must be dealt with immediately as a matter of priority.

The average cost of childcare in Ireland amounted to €184 a week last year, up 3.4% from 2018 according to the figures released by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Dublin recorded the highest full-time childcare fees, averaging at €251 per week.

Campaigners say parents have contributed over €100,000 to childcare services out of their own pockets in recent years. This could have been substantially reduced with the help of state funding.

Fórsa’s pre-election membership poll found 71% of public servants were willing to back parties that pledged publicly-provided and funded affordable childcare for working people.

Fórsa official and parent, Eimear Ryan said a new system of increased funding was needed to bring Ireland’s childcare system closer to the EU average.

“As a working mum with two small girls aged nearly five and three years old, I require full time early years’ service. They attend a wonderful professional service about five kilometres from my home, where they are happy, as am I knowing that all their needs are being provided for in my absence.

“I supported the rally 100% and I conveyed my full support as I leave my most precious possessions with these dedicated professional and highly skilled workers. I believe they play an integral part in early childhood care and education of my girls and deserve fair recognition for their work and appropriate terms and conditions of employment,” she said.

The average gender pay gap in Ireland has risen to 14.4%, according to the most recent estimates from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The 2017 figure – based on the latest available data – compares to a significantly lower gap of below 12.6% during the recession.

The new research also revealed that the gap is wider for older workers, with younger women who recently entered the workforce suffering a gap of just 3%. This jumps to 15% for the 35-44 age group, which represents most young mothers, and stays high for those aged over 45.

This is largely due to the fact that women are far more likely than men to take time out of the workforce to care for children, which stalls their earnings and has a long-term impact on their future pay and promotion prospects.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland has also highlighted the high cost of childcare, which puts constraints on women’s participation in the workforce.

Fórsa has been at the forefront of campaigns for the introduction of new laws to compel employers to report their gender pay gap. Unions believe that legislation to oblige employers to disclose differences in pay between male and female employees – and explain the reasons for such imbalances – would highlight inequalities and encourage action to redress pay imbalances.

A Gender Pay Gap Information Bill stalled when the recent general election was called.

Fórsa had earlier criticised the previous Government for failing to back an opposition bill on gender pay gap reporting. It said the Fine Gael-led administration risked running out of time to pass the legislation after it insisted on publishing its own bill instead – a forecast that turned out to be correct.

Catering and household staff at St Patrick’s hospital, who are represented by Fórsa, have secured terms and conditions including specific protections and union recognition at talks in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

The discussions followed a dispute over the employer’s decision to outsource the catering and household services at the mental health unit.

Fórsa represents the management grades in the catering and household departments. Fórsa official David Field said management had previously refused to engage on the issue, but a ballot for industrial action by staff earlier this month prompted a move to conciliation over the transfer of undertakings agreement with the companies providing the services to the hospital.

“Fórsa members led the way on the issues involved in this dispute. The agreement ensures their existing pension provision is maintained, including the death-in-service cover included in their terms of employment. We’ve also secured guarantees on their work location, carrying over all of their previous terms and conditions,” he said.

David added the union has also secured recognition for members in the new companies, and an agreed industrial relations framework with which to operate should the new employers attempt to alter their existing terms and conditions. David said ex gratia payments for five members had also been agreed.

It’s unlikely that further exploratory talks on a pay deal to succeed the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) will take place before a new government is formed. Fórsa had been leading union efforts to negotiate a new accord prior to this month’s general election.

The union has said it will seek above-inflation pay rises in any new deal to take account of the rising cost of living, recent economic and exchequer growth, and pay movements across the economy. The Central Statistics Office reports that average private sector earnings are rising by nearly 4% a year.

Fórsa has also said it wants the negotiation to address additional working time introduced for many public servants during the recession – a stance supported by branches at the union’s Consultative Council earlier this month.

During the recent election, the union asked political parties to set out their policies on this, but none of the major parties made a specific commitment. This led Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan to warn the Consultative Council that branches and members faced a battle to win back hours lost under the Haddington Road agreement.

But he said the union would address the issue head-on.

In a survey of Fórsa members conducted in January, 94% said it was unacceptable that higher-paid public servants were having their pay fully restored to pre-crisis levels, while those on lower incomes were still working extra unpaid hours introduced during the recession.

The union’s pre-election campaign established that the three biggest parties plus Labour and the Social Democrats are explicitly in favour of doing a new public service pay deal.

Audrey Tormey of NCBI and Jacintha Hayden of Delta services CLG in Carlow were among the Fórsa members who took to their respective picket lines last week as part of the 24-hour stoppage in Section 39 agencies.

Audrey took part in a number of media interviews from the picket line, including a live interview on RTE’s Sean O’Rourke programme. She told the programme: “We don’t want to be on strike but we feel we have no choice but to come out on a matter of principle, for pay restoration. We’re ten years waiting on this matter to be resolved.”

Audrey and other colleagues spoke to Virgin Media News: “It’s unfair that half of Section 39 agencies have had their pay restored. We haven’t, we don’t see why, that’s why we’re on the picket line.”

Communications officer Niall Shanahan spoke about the dispute live on KCLR fm: “As a new government is in the process of being formed we wanted to send a message to the incoming government that this is an issue that needs to be resolved, it’s unfinished business from the last administration. We remain focused on a negotiated solution, but we have a mandate for further strike action if it proves to be necessary.”

The Irish Times reported: “Further strike action by workers in State-funded organisations providing health and social services is inevitable unless they receive restoration of pay cuts at the same pace as public servants.” Speaking to reporters on the NCBI picket line on Whitworth Road in Dublin, Forsa’s General Secretary Kevin Callinan said: “We will be saying to any incoming government that this needs to be fixed and fixed quickly.”

‘Poor relation’

Jacintha Hayden is a social care worker and Fórsa representative, she’s worked with Delta services CLG for six years. Delta provides day and residential care to adults with physical and intellectual disabilities.

In a case study issued to media outlets Jacintha Hayden explained her reasons for supporting the strike action.

“Agencies like ours seem to be the poor relation when it comes to pay restoration. There’s been pay restoration in the public sector and the larger Section 39 agencies have had pay restored but only after they fought for it.

“Now we’re having to fight for it too. It shouldn’t have come to this, our pay should have been restored in line with the other organisations.

“We work hard. We provide a valuable service. We should be paid accordingly. The delay has led to this strike action which has unanimous support among the staff.

“They feel very strongly about this and our union membership has increased as a result. They recognise that we’ve fallen behind where we should be in terms of pay and that it’s time to take a stand.

“We just want a fair day’s wage for the work we do, and that’s not happening right now. The HSE need to step up and resolve this by restoring the pay cut imposed during the economic crisis. Things have moved on. There’s no excuse for leaving workers like us behind.”

Health workers in the community and voluntary sector joined community employment (CE) supervisors on 14th February in a rally to call on the next government to address outstanding issues of pay and pensions in their respective sectors.

The rally was organised under the auspices of the Irish Congress of Trade Union's (ICTU) Community Sector Committee behind a message for the new government: “Unfinished business: Don’t ignore community services.”

Community Employment (CE) supervisors took part in a 24-hour work stoppage on the day, in their continuing dispute over the Government’s failure to implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation to give CE supervisors access to an occupational pension scheme.

Workers in ‘Section 39’ agencies, under which independent voluntary organisations are funded by the HSE to deliver care and other services, took part in the rally a week before their 24-hour industrial action on 21st February. This marked the latest phase of a union campaign.

Addressing the rally at Government buildings in Dublin, Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said: “A state that fails to take responsibility for the delivery of key services is an irresponsible state. A state that fails to treat the workers providing those key services fairly is an unjust state. A state that cuts these services, often to the weakest in our society, is a sick state.”

He criticised the outgoing Government’s lack of interest in convening a community sector forum, which was agreed as part of the 2015 Lansdowne Road agreement: “

Fórsa official Ian McDonnell said the next government must address pension provision for all workers. “It’s a significant challenge, and one that must be top-of-mind for the next administration, given its prominence as a general election issue.

“In the meantime, it would reflect well on the new administration to quickly deal with the unfinished business of CE supervisors. The cost of implementing the 2008 Labour Court recommendation is around €31 million, and a modest employer pension contribution would cost just €3.5 million a year,” he said.

Over 1,000 workers, many retired or approaching retirement, are suffering hardship because of successive governments’ failure to implement the Labour Court’s recommendation.

While unions have been successful in achieving pay restoration for significant numbers of members employed in section 39 organisations, members in smaller workplaces have yet to have benefit from a deal agreed in October 2018.

Fórsa official Catherine Keogh said: “It’s been a test of endurance for people who deliver vital health services in the community, for whom other work opportunities means we’re now witnessing much higher staff turnover in employments providing vital care services.

“The failure to complete the pay restoration process is putting the sustainability of these services at risk, which would place the burden of service delivery back on HSE.”

Media coverage

• Hundreds of community employment scheme supervisors to strike - The Irish Times (featuring case study of Fórsa member Gillian Byrne)
• Community employment schemes close due to strike - RTE SixOne news
• State-funded health agency and social services staff to strike - The Irish Times

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) was among a group of European trade unions that recently called for the ratification of a 2019 International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention on violence and harassment at work.

The ILO is a UN body made up of representatives of government, employers and unions.

It came as a UK survey revealed that over half of women workers in the UK, and 63% of young women aged 18-24, have experienced sexual harassment at work.

The poll, published by the TUC – the British equivalent of ICTU – also revealed that seven in ten women workers believe the #MeToo movement has led to more openness about sexual harassment.

But the framework to report and address workplace sexual harassment remains poor, according to the research from the union representative body.

The TUC called on its government to mandate employers to actively prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. It said this would shift the responsibility for dealing with the issue from individual victims to employers.

In a separate survey, three-fifths of respondents cited the fear of a negative impact on their career or working relationships as the main reason for not reporting workplace sexual harassment.

Fórsa official Geraldine O’Brien welcomed the European-wide union effort to establish a mechanism to hold employers responsible for preventing sexual harassment at work.

“Once imposed, legal obligations will reduce offences in the workspace and reduce the burden of responsibility on victims. The call for change is a positive first step, but there is a long way to go before the problem of sexual harassment at work is resolved,” she said.

Geraldine said Fórsa would closely monitor the Irish Government’s response to the legislative demands.

The full report outlining the survey results by the TUC can be found here. 

Almost 42% of Irish households would be unable to meet an unexpected expense of €1,000, according to new research on in-work poverty from the union-supported Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI). This compares to an EU average of just 34%.

The think tank’s latest survey on income and living conditions found that well over 80% of single parents couldn’t afford an unexpected financial emergency should one arise. On this measure, Ireland ranked bottom in the EU, 6.4 points behind Bulgaria.

Unexpected expenses refer to emergency repairs, a family funeral, increased insurance costs, or any other unforeseeable expense.

The latest edition of the NERI survey, which links the employment to living standard indicators, focussed on deprivation rates and ability to afford unexpected expenses in order to highlight in-work poverty.

NERI says Ireland fares poorly compared to other EU countries, and that even the share of full-time workers with temporary or permanent contracts unable to meet an unexpected expense is on the rise.

A further study of deprivation rates also highlighted the in-work poverty faced by many employees.

It found that 31% of under-employed people – those who work part-time but want full-time work – suffered material deprivation, defined as the inability to afford two or more of 11 everyday things like a winter jacket, new furniture, or the occasional night out.

The survey showed that material deprivation for every category of worker, even full time staff with permanent contracts, was higher in 2017 than in the years leading up to the financial crisis.

Read the report HERE. 

Almost 40% of workers aged under 30 are in some kind of atypical working arrangement, according to research by the trade union-backed Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI).

The recent report, based on 2017 figures, found the norm for young workers was shifting towards part-time work – both temporary and permanent – as the share of full-time permanent jobs falls.

It also found an increased risk that part-time and temporary employment was becoming “more precarious” in recent years.

The report warns that headline figures for part-time and temporary employment, which show a return to normal levels in recent years, masks the true nature of precarious work for younger workers.

It says the share of permanent full-time jobs in new employment contracts has barely recovered following the financial crisis. Instead, higher shares of precarious employment in the labour market relative to the boom years are increasing financial insecurity and deprivation rates for younger workers.

The proportion of under-thirties in full-time permanent jobs fell from 75% in 2004 to 69% in 2008, and less than half of this ground had been recovered in five years of strong growth up to 2017.

Meanwhile, the share of people that are underemployed (part-time workers who would rather have a full-time job) is almost 50% higher than it was in 2007.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, and the subsequent displacement of workers, demands that the benefits of greater technology-driven productivity are shared with workers. That was the message conveyed by Fórsa to Ireland’s top academic and commercial experts on AI at a recent seminar in Dublin.

The union’s communications officer Niall Shanahan told the seminar that unions wanted to ensure that the benefits of automation and technological development led to better working lives.

“This can be in the form of elimination of repetitive or dangerous tasks, or the reduction in working hours but with maintenance of pay, for example through a four-day week,” he said.

Niall said unions across Europe had called for greater dialogue, cooperation, and consultation when new technology is introduced into workplaces.

“There is a widespread agreement that contemporary innovations and development in automation, computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) poses at least the possibility of disruption and changes in labour markets and employment.

“These rapid developments have caused much anxiety among unions and others who are interested in labour markets as the prospect of mass unemployment precipitated by automation and computerisation seems evident. But this is not a new challenge for the trade union movement.

“It was a hot topic at the TUC Congress in 1956, where people were talking about a new “electronic computer” developed by the food manufacturer Lyons (Lyons Electronic Office, or ‘LEO’ for short). The computer could work out the payslips for 10,000 employees in four hours — a job that used to require 37 clerks.

“The TUC echoed the optimism of John Maynard Keyne’s belief that this technology could usher us forth toward a more prosperous leisure society: “Automation offers the prospect of higher pay, greater leisure, and healthier and less strenuous work,” but argued unions would need to make sure the benefits of greater productivity were shared with workers.

“In that latter sense, our concerns today remain much the same,” he said.

Analysis

Niall drew from Fórsa’s 2019 scoping report on automation by Craig Whelan, an analyst with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and a Fórsa member, who developed the paper as part of his UCD Masters of Public Policy programme.

Craig’s analysis shows that academic studies since the turn of the millennium vary quite a bit on the extent to which whole jobs, as distinct from specific tasks, will be eliminated by evolving technology.

A 2018 study estimates that approximately half of jobs have a high likelihood of being at least affected by automation.

Of this, 14% are “highly automatable” with a probability of automation of greater than 70%.

Additionally, 32% of jobs have a risk of automation between 50% and 70%, pointing to the possibility of significant change in the way these jobs are carried out.

And while the academics dispute the extent of the risk of automation to labour markets, they tend to agree on trends. Workers with lower levels of education are the most at risk of automation and workers in the occupations estimated to have a higher automation risk are displaying a much higher unemployment rate. As recently as 2018 the OECD said that this particular trend is “already reflected in employment outcomes.”

An Irish study in 2018 estimated that approximately two out of five jobs in Ireland are likely to be impacted substantially by automation. Breaking this down on a sectoral basis, they find that transportation and storage, agriculture, forestry and fishing and the construction sectors have a probability of automation of greater than 50%.

They also find that women tend to be employed in occupations with a higher risk of automation than men.

Regulation

The publication of the European Commission's regulation for AI in Europe coincided with the seminar. Writing in Silicon Republic one of the organisers of the Dublin event, Professor Barry O’Sullivan from the Insight Research Centre in Cork, commented: “Ireland has a great opportunity to become a leader in trustworthy AI. Ireland is the European home to many of the world’s leading companies in data, AI and technology.

“There is significant national strength in the commercial, academic and civil society spheres. Trustworthy AI will become a commercial imperative.

“Ireland is a country that is respected and trusted throughout the world because of our reputation in areas such as safe food production, our environment, our tradition of international peace-keeping and diplomacy, as well as our achievements in arts and culture. We should establish a world-leading reputation for trustworthy AI. We have the ingredients, the expertise and the ecosystem to make it happen.”

Ireland’s economic recovery and rapid private sector investment growth has left the public sector lagging behind the rest of the economy, according to the employers’ body Ibec.

In a recent speech to a business leaders‘ conference, Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy business had become “too big, too fast for our society to cope with because the public realm has not scaled quickly enough.”

He said the ratio of private to public sector jobs was now 25 to 1, following the creation of 400,000 private sector jobs since 2014. He described this as a “dramatic imbalance,” and said the ratio of private to public jobs is now “out of kilter.”

Mr McCoy said the imbalance was creating surging demand for public infrastructure and public services, resulting in an intense public debate about housing, health and quality of life. This was reflected in the recent general election.

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan commented: “In the depths of the economic crisis progressives argued that the problem wasn’t that the public sector was too big, rather the private sector was too small.

“Now, with a strong recovery in Ireland, it’s the growth - and the potential for further growth of the private sector - that’s highlighting the fact that the public sector is too small.”

McCoy said: “The key point is we have allowed parts of the public service to become proportionately too small for business and society to continue to thrive.”

He also emphasised the need for social dialogue on issues like public infrastructure, public services, carbon reduction targets and the effects of Brexit. He said Ibec and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions had already had positive contacts on the issue.

“Ireland needs to build a new national consensus to help provide solutions to these challenges. A new social dialogue forum would consist of a range of stakeholders including business representative groups, trade unions, NGOs and other players in the civil society arena,” he said.

McCoy’s earlier call for a new social dialogue process last September was welcomed by Kevin Callinan, who said renewed social dialogue could resolve or improve issues including childcare, education and housing.

“The outgoing government’s approach to social dialogue sought to limit the opportunities for employers and unions to work with government to craft solutions to basic problems that affect workers but also impede the potential for business development. We need investment in transport, housing, education and training, and our public health system,” he said.