Derek Mullen, Fórsa national secretary and head of the union’s Civil Service Division, is retiring after more than 40 years as a civil servant and union leader.

Most of his time leading the division coincided with the Covid pandemic, an extraordinary period when he successfully won protections for civil servants working on the frontline and in hastily-introduced remote working arrangements.

More recently, Derek led the negotiations that delivered the civil service blended working framework and worked with senior colleagues to achieve the restoration of the hated ‘Haddington Road hours’ from the beginning of this month.

Prior to the creation of Fórsa, Derek was deputy general secretary of the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), a position he’d held since 2012. He played an important role in the negotiations that led to the 2018 Fórsa amalgamation, and was appointed as head of the new union’s 30,000-strong Civil Service Division.

“I think we did something special in bringing together the three unions that became Fórsa. It has given us a higher profile, more negotiating power, and allowed us to do more for our members,” he said.

It wasn’t his first successful amalgamation. Back in the 1980s. Derek represented members in the customs and excise service and was central to the 1990 merger between the Irish Customs and Excise Association and the CPSU. He continued to represent customs staff until taking up a full-time union role in 1992.

By 1994 he had been appointed a CPSU assistant general secretary. In the 1990s he negotiated the revenue customs integration with general revenue grades and the employee share option scheme that accompanied the privatisation of Telecom Éireann.

“The revenue talks resulted in a good outcome for members. But, notwithstanding the employee share option scheme, the telecom privatisation was a case study of the problems that arise from privatisation,” he said.

Derek’s time representing members in social welfare coincided with the transformation of local offices to Intreo centres, along with the merger of FÁS and the community welfare service.

He became CPSU deputy general secretary in a period of turmoil following the 2018 financial collapse. “Our members bore the brunt of Government-imposed austerity measures including pension levies, pay cuts, a recruitment and promotion moratorium, and the Haddington Road hours. These were difficult of times for our members, but not one redundancy was forced on public servants,” he said.

Derek was also the CPSU’s training officer and edited the union’s magazine, Aontas, as well as the Fórsa Civil Service Quarterly magazine.

While he says he’ll miss working in the job he loved, Derek leaves the organisation positive its future. “I spent most of my 43 years in representative roles from branch to executive to head office. It was a journey worth making, alongside great and hardworking colleagues in the division and over the years.

“I’ll miss our members, particularly those who do so much on a voluntary basis. They are the lifeblood of the union. The challenge now is to grow our union membership to levels that will see us best placed to deal with the challenges of the future,” he said.

All his friends and colleagues in the union wish him the very best for the future.