Many of you may be new to civil service trade unions and may be wondering how unions adopt policies and how you can influence them.

Fórsa is a democratic organisation. Each year, branches hold an annual general meeting (AGM). At the AGM any member may bring forward a ‘motion’ – which is in essence a policy suggestion or a call for a specific action.

Motions can be addressed at your branch committee to ask them to achieve something. Alternatively, if you are seeking a change to a Civil Service policy, it may be addressed to the Civil Service Executive Committee of Fórsa.

If it is something that has a broader audience in mind, it can be addressed to the National Executive Committee that governs all of Fórsa. Such motions go forward for debate at either our Civil Service or National conferences – the central policy-making platform of Fórsa.

The best motions have the following structure:

1. Description of the issue or problem which the motion seeks to address

2. The union principle(s) that underlie the solution

3. Highlighting existing policies that will contribute to the solution

4. End with the proposal

A link to the last Civil Service Conference documentation can be found here. It can be used to give you an understanding of how some motions are formulated.

Many branches hold their AGMs between October and March and you may find that you still have an opportunity to put forward a motion in 2022.

Seán Carabini, Fórsa