Health staff are due a 1% pay increase with effect from 1st January 2018, under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) negotiated by Fórsa and other public service unions. The next instalment of the deal, which was backed by members of the three unions that recently amalgamated to create our new union, will see a further 1% adjustment in October.

The January pay adjustment goes to HSE staff as well as those in voluntary hospitals and other ‘section 38’ agencies. Fórsa is also campaigning for pay restoration for staff in ‘section 39’ agencies.

In total, the PSSA will deliver income restoration worth over 7% of salary to more than 70% of public servants between now and 2020.

Late last year, a timetable for the full abolition of FEMPI legislation, which underpinned public service pay cuts and pension levies, was officially outlined with the publication of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Bill. This also gave effect to the provisions of the PSSA.

Fórsa general secretary Shay Cody said the legislation was a landmark in the union campaign to restore incomes, which were cut by an average of around 14% under FEMPI during the recession.

“This legislation underpins the pay adjustments agreed in the PSSA deal, including a 1% increase due now. More significantly, it establishes a legal timetable for the dismantling of the hated FEMPI legislation. This is what Fórsa and other unions have been working for since the pension levy was first imposed on public servants in 2009,” he said.
 
The PSSA will see pay lost through ‘FEMPI’ legislation restored to more than 90% of public servants – those earning up to €70,000 a year – by the end of 2020. Almost all the rest will see full pay restoration within a further two years.
 
It also preserves the value of public service pensions, while taking almost a quarter of public servants out of FEMPI pension levy provisions by 2020. This will be done by increasing the pension levy ceiling from €28,750 to €34,500 for all staff except those who benefit from ‘fast accrual’ pension arrangements. This will be worth a total of €575 per year.
 
Any remaining pension levy will be converted into a ‘pension related deduction’ (PRD). Staff who joined the public service on or after 1st January 2013 will pay a smaller additional contribution, reflecting the fact that their pension benefits are different to the schemes applying to those who joined before that date.
 
The legislation repeals the 2009 FEMPI Act with effect from 1st January 2018. It also repeals section 2(3) of the 2009 FEMPI No.2 Act – the legislation that reduced fixed periodic allowances by 5% – from 1st October 2020. Section 5(1) of the 2009 Act is also repealed from January 2021, which will allow the Labour Court and WRC to consider ‘cost-increasing claims’ from that date.

PSSA income adjustments

• 1st January 2018: 1% pay adjustment
• 1st October 2018: 1% pay adjustment
• 1st January 2019: Pension levy threshold up from €28,750 to €32,000 (worth €325pa)
• 1st January 2019: 1% pay adjustment for those earning less than €30,000
• 1st September 2019: 1.75% pay adjustment
• 1st January 2020: Pension levy threshold increased to €34,500 (worth €250pa)
• 1st January 2020: 0.5% pay increase for those earning less than €32,000
• 1st October 2020: 2% pay adjustment

Health minister Simon Harris and the chief executives of the HSE, Tusla and the National Association of Voluntary Bodies will be among the speakers at a Fórsa conference on the future of health and social care professionals (HSCP) next month. Susanne Rastrick, chief allied professions officer of NHS England, will also contribute.

Fórsa represents over 7,000 HSCPs, and the conference will explore the future of the professions and the services they provide in community, hospital and health promotion settings.

The event, which takes place on 1st February in the Aisling Hotel in Dublin, will consider new emerging health service structures, the implications of demographic changes, and the review of voluntary bodies in a publicly-funded health service. Workshops will focus on issues relating to CORU, fitness-to-practice, CPD, caseload management, resource requirements and quality standards.

Health minister Simon Harris will formally open the day. Other high-profile speakers include Fórsa head of division Eamonn Donnelly, HSE director Tony O’Brien, Tusla chief executive Fred McBride, National Federation of Voluntary Bodies’ chief executive Brian O’Donnell, and Teresa Cody, an assistant secretary in the health department.

Places at the event are in high demand but you can apply to register here.

Fórsa’s Health and Welfare divisional executive has approved a campaign of industrial action to win pay restoration in agencies that are funded by the public health service, but which operate independently of the HSE. The union is identifying which of these ‘section 39’ agencies have failed to restore recession-era pay cuts, even though they have relatively robust funding streams.

The divisional executive acknowledged that pay restoration across section 39 agencies was more complex than in the mainstream public service, because voluntary and community organisations have different funding arrangements. In other words, some are better able to fund pay restoration than others.

Yet the union says a significant number of agencies have failed to act, even though they have the money to do so. It intends to focus industrial action on these organisations.

Most section 39 agencies cut pay – at least to the same degree as the public service – between 2009 and 2011. In many cases this was on foot of public funding cuts, which have now been fully or partially restored. Yet some have failed to pass on the restoration to staff, despite being relatively well funded.

Meanwhile, pay restoration for HSE and hospital workers – and the wider public service – is well underway under the Public Service Stability Agreement and its predecessor, the Lansdowne Road deal.

Fórsa head of division Éamonn Donnelly said public authorities – including the HSE, the public expenditure department, and the health department – should act to ensure that funding for pay is passed on to staff. But he said the agencies themselves also have to behave responsibly.

“Section 39 staff are totally dedicated to providing services to the most vulnerable people in our communities. They experienced a huge hit during the crisis, often beyond that meted out to mainstream public servants. Now they deserve the same pay restoration as their colleagues in other settings."

“Nobody wants to contemplate industrial action in these agencies, but Fórsa won’t stand by and see these dedicated workers left behind,” he said.

The union has been running its ‘caring at what cost’ campaign for pay restoration in the sector since 2016.

The final piece of the Fórsa jigsaw was put in place on 2nd January, when the Registrar for Friendly Societies confirmed that the new union was registered and cleared to start work on behalf of more than 80,000 members. The registrar is the statutory regulator for trade unions.

The new union launched with a brand new visual identity, and with strong backing from the members of the three organisations – the CPSU, IMPACT, and the PSEU – which had put in over two years’ work to make the amalgamation happen.

Those three unions effectively ceased to exist once the merger was sanctioned after a six-week statutory period that followed ballots, which strongly endorsed the move.

Fórsa now collectively represents workers across the civil and public services, commercial and non-commercial semi-state organisations, the community and voluntary sector, and private companies in aviation, telecommunications and elsewhere.

We are the second largest union in the country, and the strongest and most influential trade union voice in the Irish public service and semi-state sector.

After pooling the resources of the three former unions, Fórsa is also financially stronger, with €85 million in assets including a €50 million dispute fund. So, while members’ subscriptions are unchanged, the new organisation offers an enhanced range of financial benefits and free helplines.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), which brings together organisations with a combined membership of over 800,000, described the arrival of Fórsa as “highly significant and very positive for the Irish trade union movement.”

Its general secretary Patricia King said: “Fórsa provides a strong new voice for workers across a range of areas, and it will also enhance the capacity and effectiveness of the wider trade union movement across the island.”

Public servants who want to revert to ‘pre-Haddington Road’ working hours – with a pro-rata salary reduction – can apply to do so between now and April 2018. The opportunity, which was negotiated by Fórsa as part of the Public Services Stability Agreement (PSSA), will then close before briefly reopening between January and April 2021.

Staff who opt to revert to the shorter working week have to do so permanently. And applications are subject to the ‘business needs’ of the organisation they work in.

During last year’s talks on the PSSA, the union sought a return to pre-2011 hours for all. But the employers were adamant that they would not do a deal that restored working time lost under previous agreements. Fórsa officials repeatedly raised the issue, but the other side wouldn’t budge.

The current provisions fall short of the unions’ ambition, but they at least give options to staff whose circumstances mean time is more important to them than money.

Fórsa official Catherine Keogh took to the airwaves last week to refute claims that health service administrative staff were to blame for the hospital A&E ‘trolley crisis.’ Speaking on Today FM’s Last Word programme, she rejected claims by GP Ruairi Hanley, who said the crisis could be overcome by getting rid of administrators.

Catherine told 132,000 listeners that the crisis – and many of the underlying shortcomings in public health service – were due to a lack of hospital capacity and the continued underfunding of community health services, which led too many people to present at hospital when a local community service would be better.

“The health service is criticised for lack of planning each year. They do plan, but no plan can wish away the lack of hospital beds and underfunding of community services,” she said.

Catherine said only about 15% of total health workers were clerical and admin staff, and most of them work in the two lowest paid grades.

“Contrary to popular myth, the proportion of admin staff in our health service has been constant over the past decade. In fact it’s fallen slightly. And the vast majority of admin staff work directly with patients and the public, or provide direct support to doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

“All health service workers provide essential services. In fact, they work together in hospitals and other settings on a day-to-day basis. Singling out one group for criticism is counter-productive because it diverts attention from the real issues,” she said.

Listen to Catherine’s interview here.

The Government is to legislate to allow public servants who are currently obliged to retire at age 65 to opt to stay in work longer. Once enacted, the law will give public servants recruited before 1st April 2004 the option to retire at any time up to age 70.

The new arrangements will benefit public servants who must currently retire at 65, but who depend on the state old age pension for part of their retirement income. They have faced a problem since the state pension age was increased from 65 to 66.

Public servants recruited after 1st April 2004 are not affected because they either have a retirement age of 70 already, or they have no compulsory retirement age.
 
Press reports last November predicted that the new measure would mean a compulsory increase in the retirement age for all civil and public servants. It does not.

Fórsa had been working to resolve the plight of public servants who are forced to retire at age 65, but who cannot access the state pension until they are 66. Discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform took place under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA), which was backed the union’s members in ballots last year.

Pending the enactment of legislation to introduce the change, unions and management have agreed limited interim arrangements to allow public servants who want to stay in work until the state pension age to be re-hired. Under these interim arrangements, staff can retire and receive their lump sum, before being re-hired in their current role.

However, they will be placed on the first point of the non-pensionable pay scale, and they will not make further pension contributions. Although this arrangement is not ideal, it means that public servants won’t be forced to retire before they are due payment of their full pension.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is seeking legal changes to make it easier for victims to report sexually abusive behaviour in the workplace. The move comes after months of intense focus on workplace sexual harassment in Ireland and across the globe.

Congress general secretary Patricia King has written to employment affairs minister Regina Doherty, saying that reports of workplace sexual misconduct should be treated as ‘protected disclosures,’ which could be made to external bodies like the Workplace Relations Commission or Health and Safety  Authority.

Under existing legislation, sexual harassment is categorised as a ‘grievance,’ which means workers must direct their complaints to employers. However, as Ms King points out in her letter: “very often the perpetrator can be the most senior-ranked person in the employment.”

Ms King said sexual harassment in the workplace pollutes the working environment. “It can have a devastating effect on the health, confidence, morale and performance of those affected by it,” she said.

Separately, Fórsa and other unions criticised a minister of state, whose discriminatory comments resulted in a €7,500 compensation award towards the end of last year. The case was taken by the PSEU, one of the unions that merged to form the new union.

During an interview for the post of private secretary to Minister John Halligan, the Waterford TD asked the candidate: “Are you a married woman? Do you have children? How old are your children?

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudication officer declared the comments discriminatory under equality legislation, after the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) took up the case.

Minister Halligan bizarrely claimed he had simply been championing “family friendly” work arrangements. In a statement, he also cited his inexperience at interviewing. “This was the first time I was conducting an interview of this sort and I did not realise that it was unacceptable to ask such a question,” he said. However, the candidate told the WRC that he had prefaced his question by saying: “I know I shouldn’t say this.”

Precarious working arrangements have now spread across the economy and feature increasingly in public administration, health and education, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

A new ICTU report, Insecure and Uncertain: Precarious Work in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, has revealed that 8% of the Republic’s workforce – or 158,190 people – see significant variations in their weekly or monthly working hours, while 7% of workers are in temporary employment, often because they can’t find permanent work.
 
The alarming growth in precarious work since 2008 has prompted ICTU to urge the Government to legislate to address the problem. It wants new laws to guarantee the right to a minimum number of working hours, and provide workers with a written statement of their terms and conditions from day one of their employment.

Last month, ICTU welcomed new legislation aimed at banning zero hours contracts in all cases except emergency cover, short-term relief work, or genuine casual work.
 
The Congress report shows a dramatic 34% rise in part-time work and self-employment, which ICTU says is “indicative of significant growth in bogus or false self-employment.”
 
The number of people in permanent full-time work is still over 100,000 lower than in 2008, despite significant growth in the total number of people in work. And over half of those in temporary employment says it’s because they can’t find permanent jobs – a 179% increase on the 2008 figure.
 
The study found that female and young workers were most likely to be stuck in precarious or insecure jobs. And, while precarious work is most common in distribution, hotels, catering, retail and construction, it also features increasingly in public administration, health and education.
 
ICTU general secretary Patricia King said the research confirmed the urgent need for legislation. “As the study clearly illustrates, the impact of precarious work extends well beyond the workplace and its unchallenged growth raises profound questions as to the type of society we wish to live in,” she said.
 
The study found that official policies like reducing employers’ PRSI on low-paid work had made it easier and more profitable to hire workers on insecure contracts. Yet these practices impact negatively on workers’ health, living standards, and ability to access secure accommodation. They also hit productivity and innovation, while reducing tax revenues for the state.

Fórsa joined a broad coalition of unions, and organisations campaigning for pensioners and women, in a demonstration on Wednesday (17th January) to demand the reversal of 2012 pension cuts, which fall hardest on women.

The coalition, which brings the union together with Age Action Ireland, Active Retirement Ireland, the National Women’s Council, the Irish Countrywomen’s Association and Siptu, has also sought an urgent meeting with social protection Minister Regina Doherty.

The cabinet sub-committee on pensions discussed the issue yesterday.

It’s estimated that as many as 40,000 people – mostly women who left the workforce to rear children or care for others – have been hit by the changes, which mean state pension entitlements are based on an average of the contributions made during each year at work. Crucially, the methodology takes the first PRSI payment as the starting point for averaging, which can drastically reduce the annual average payment for workers who paid PRSI in part-time student jobs.

Those who took time out of the workforce to raise a family, or to care for relatives, after 1994 are not affected. But many of those currently reaching retirement left work before that year.

Fórsa and other coalition members wrote to Minister Doherty last month. “Though greatly disappointed that no measure to address this inequality was announced in October’s budget, we welcome your subsequent commitment to find a solution, and your plan to bring a proposal to cabinet,” they said.

You’re reading one of five new fortnightly Fórsa bulletins. This one’s tailored for members in the health and welfare sector. We also have bespoke editions for members in the civil service, education, local authorities and the services and enterprises sector.

The initiative represents our determination to improve member communications in the new union.

We’ve also published the first edition of our new Fórsa magazine (see picture), which should now be available in your workplace.

The new Fórsa website will take a little longer to get in place, simply because of the scale of the task of merging the best from the former union websites, adding new content, and finalising a top-class design. Staff from each of the three former unions have been working together in this, and we expect to have the new Fórsa website up in March.

In the meantime, you can go to a holding page at www.forsa.ie. This page links to our social media platforms – on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Soundcloud. Our first tweet reached over 16,400 people. And, since the start of the year, we’ve had over 1,370 Facebook engagements.

We look forward to delivering further improvements in Fórsa communications and information over the coming months. Do let us know what you think!

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.