Local authority employers have backed away from a threat to unilaterally abandon the local government ‘common recruitment pool’ from next month. The common recruitment pool underpins recruitment and promotion procedures for many grades in the sector.

The Local Government Management Agency, which represents the employers, wrote to Fórsa recently to say that its 1st January deadline was not “set in stone.”

The union had previously agreed to discuss a review of the scheme, which management wants to abolish. But this offer was withdrawn when management made its ultimatum earlier in the year.

Fórsa national secretary Peter Nolan wrote to union branches in the sector last month to say that talks on a review could now go ahead. “Following the removal of the employers’ threat, the issue has now been jointly referred to the Workplace Relations Commission, where talks are expected to commence in the New Year," he said.