Paid-up Fórsa members working in the civil and public service, and in non-commercial State agencies, will receive details of the voting arrangements in a ballot for a proposed new public service agreement next week.

If accepted, the proposed new public service agreement, Building Momentum, would run from January 2021 to December 2022. It allows for two pay increases, each worth 1% of annual salary or €500 a year, whichever is the greater.

Civil and public servants whose working time was increased under the 2013 Haddington Road agreement (HRA) will see a reduction in their hours next year if the proposed new public service agreement is accepted in ballots of union members.

Fórsa has this morning (15th January) given an initial welcome to headline measures set out in the Government’s Remote Working Strategy, published today, which would make remote work “the norm” for 20% of public servants. But the union also called for engagement on the detailed roll-out of the proposals.

Fórsa’s Local Government Division has postponed an industrial action ballot over job evaluation pending the outcome of the union’s national ballot on the proposed new public service agreement, Building Momentum. 

Many local councils are flouting official Government restrictions on workplace attendance under level five of Covid restrictions, according to Fórsa.