Union negotiators have urged all public service unions to join a coordinated campaign, supported by industrial action ballots, for improved pay. The announcement came four weeks after talks on improved pay awards for 2021 and 2022 ended in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) without agreement.

Led by Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan, the negotiating team also said they were no longer prepared to discuss an extension of the Building Momentum agreement until improved terms for 2021-2022 are agreed. The Government had sought an extension to provide certainty over next year’s pay bill.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland programme earlier this week, Kevin said all low paid and middle-income workers, including public servants, were struggling.

“They are really struggling with the cost of living. We need this Government, as an employer, to respond to that, just as we would expect other employers to do their bit in relation to this cost-of-living crisis," he said.

The negotiators accused the Government of breaching the current Building Momentum public service pay agreement by failing to conclude a review of its pay terms. The review clause was triggered by unions over four months ago when inflation was 5.6%. Subsequent talks in the Workplace Relations Commission ended without agreement on 17th June, by which time inflation had hit 7.8%.

Kevin said that Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) officials had told the WRC that the Government needed more time to reflect on its position.

“Four weeks later, with inflation at 9.1%, they are still reflecting. The administration is now effectively winding down until mid-September, leaving low and middle-income public servants with the prospect of another two months of uncertainty. In our view, the Government’s attitude towards its staff is bordering on contempt.

“Given its continued foot-dragging, it seems clear that the Government does not intend to conclude the review of Building Momentum,” he said.

In a letter to all ICTU-affiliated public service unions, Kevin and other lead negotiators recommended that unions begin practical arrangements for balloting from next month.

"We can't be accused of rushing the fences. We've been very patient, but our patience has now run out and we demand a fair deal from this Government. Fórsa will continue to lead the campaign to protect incomes in the face of soaring bills, and we will not waver if we have to battle to protect the living standards of working people," he said.

An independent report, commissioned following serious claims over the purchase of a number of homes in Buncran, has found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of anyone within Donegal county council.

The council's chief executive confirmed that corruption allegations made against council staff, following serious claims made by Councillor Frank McBrearty, had taken a huge toll. 

And it’s been reported that the families of some of council staff had been subjected to questions, and in some cases abuse, due to the false allegations, some of which was also directed at the children of council staff.

In February this year, Fórsa’s Donegal Health and Local Government Branch issued an instruction to members at the council not to engage with Councillor McBrearty by telephone or to have any face-to-face meetings with him.

Union official Michelle Connaughton said the instruction had been issued to ensure none of Fórsa’s 800 members in the council were subject to individual attacks or abuse in person, via email or on social media.

“It has been a fraught time at the council for our members. There have been related incidents at council meetings that have prompted members to contact the union expressing fears for their personal safety.

“The union has continued to prevail on council management to ensure people are safe at work and not subject to harassment or individual attacks of any kind. That work is ongoing, and we’ll be meeting management next Wednesday (27^th July) to continue that discussion. Our hope now is that this report draws a line under the whole affair,” she said.

The Donegal News reported late last week that the investigation, carried out by BDO Ireland, was commissioned following serious claims made by Councillor McBrearty, who had claimed the five houses were bought “in the full knowledge” they were affected by mica.

The council had leased, repaired and maintained the houses for a decade. BDO found no evidence that anyone involved in the purchase of the houses had acted improperly or had attempted to cover up details of the transaction, following what was described as a “thorough and forensic” investigative process.

Chief executive John McLaughlin said his officials had been “fully exonerated” by the findings, and said he hoped the report would bring to a close a very difficult time for a lot of people.

“Many of our staff involved in this purchase process have been subjected to repeated and ongoing attacks in meetings and abuse, threats and allegations by email and on social media.

“This has occurred over a sustained period and done without any regard for the reputation of the individuals affected, the right to their good names and without due process of any kind,” he said.

Last month the Fórsa bulletin reported on the new framework document on the future of water services. This following a lengthy and protracted process in the Workplace Relatiosn Commission (WRC) between the ICTU group of local authority unions and representatives of local authority management, Irish Water and the local government department. 

The Framework gives members choice and protections which underpinned the strategy adopted by the unions, and it will ensure that:

• There will be no compulsory transfers of staff to Irish Water
• There will be no compulsory redundancies
• Local authority water workers will have the option of transferring to Irish Water on a voluntary basis
• Existing pay is protected, with the chance to earn more through individual or collective Irish Water performance rewards
• Existing pension benefits are legally protected, with all local authority service taken into account for pension purposes
• Other working conditions, including hours of work, annual leave, sick pay, allowances, overtime, and work location will also remain the same or be enhanced
• Staff who transfer to Irish Water will receive a €3,000 incentive payment,
• Local authority water workers can also opt to remain in local authority employment on their existing terms and conditions
• There is a voluntary redundancy option for local authority water workers
• Collective bargaining rights will remain in place.

Led by Fórsa, the unions also insisted that wider issues – including the governance of Irish water, the future of the local government and a referendum to keep water in public ownership – still had to be fully addressed.

On foot of this, the local government department released a further document called Irish water transformation: the wider policy context earlier this week. It deals with the issues we raised, and much of the content is welcome.

It commits to a referendum on the public ownership on water, and says it will likely take place next year. As a group of unions, we have already exercised significant influence on the State commitment to the referendum. But we will be keeping a close eye on any legislation to ensure it’s fit for purpose.

The Government has also approved the publication of the Water Services Bill 2022, which establishes Uisce Éíreann as a State body and “national authority for water services.” It provides scrutiny roles for the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee. And the minister has also confirmed that there will be an ICTU nominee on the board.

Enshrined in our constitution is the simple principle that strong, effective local government is the foundation of a prosperous and progressive society. The third strand in this document focuses on the future of local government.

Here, the document is light on detail and commitment and it fails to detail meaningful plans to reinvigorate the sector. Nonetheless, it opens the door to further dialogue and policy engagement.

Across Europe we have evidence of successful insourcing – taking back services in-house and delivering them for local people based on need rather than profit. Average public spending on local government across the EU runs at over 23% compared to the 8% in Ireland. The document fails to recognise that local government in Ireland is poor in relation to its European counterparts.

Austerity, privatisation, and centralisation have hollowed out our public services and stripped local authorities and local communities of their democratic power. Ireland has the worst level of local representation and the weakest local government of any country in Europe.

Local government is essentially the greatest interrelationship between the State and its people. The latest offering on the revitalisation of the sector from Government is disappointing. It is an opportunity lost to reimagine local democracy and local service provision.

For our part, Fórsa will be redoubling our efforts to make local government a priority across the political spectrum. We will be building a coalition of the willing, who understand why local government is important and care about making it better and more democratic. Watch out for further information.

Richy Carrothers is head of Fórsa’s Local Government and Local Services Division, and head of the union’s Municipal Employees’ Division.

A cross-party motion calling for a change of direction on public housing was brought in front of the Dáil last week. The motion, tabled by Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit, called for the Budget to deliver a radical shift in housing policy next year.

The initiative came from the Fórsa-backed ‘Raise the Roof’ campaign, which is calling for rent controls, an end to forced evictions, more secure tenancies, and a legal right to housing.

A ‘Raise the Roof’ rally in Limerick city centre earlier this month was attended by several political parties and key civil society bodies.

The Government responded to the cross-party motion by pointing out their commitment to ensure that 300,000 homes will be built over the next decade. But the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has said policy needs to focus on affordable housing, rather than the total number of new builds.

The Government programme envisages the construction of 90,000 social homes by the end of 2030.

Fórsa and ICTU have been supporters of the ‘Raise the Roof’ campaign since its establishment.

Read more about the campaign HERE.

Revised legislation to implement the Government’s promise to give all workers a right to request remote working won’t be published until the autumn at the earliest. Earlier this month, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) called for the new law to be made a legislative priority, as employers’ groups continued to cool on the idea.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment conclude its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Right to Request Remote Work Bill on 7th July. It recommended that the proposed “cumbersome” grounds for refusing remote working in the Government’s original proposals be revised, and said workers should not have to have 26 weeks’ service before being allowed to apply.

But Fórsa and other unions have criticised delays in making good on the promise to legislate, which was first announced to great fanfare in January 2021.

ICTU general secretary Patricia King said the Government should act without further delay to ensure the gains from remote working were not lost. “There has been a deficit of ambition by Government to deliver on their commitment to providing workers the right to request remote work," she said.

Patricia also rejected the idea, put forward by some employers, that legal rights aren’t needed because remote work is already on offer to workers. “This does not tally with what we are hearing from union representatives on the ground. Their experience is that employers are reluctant to engage until this legislation is enacted,” she said.

Speaking at the Fórsa national conference in May, the union’s president Michael Smyth said the Government had returned to old and outmoded ways of thinking instead of looking forward. He described this as “a spectacular own goal after two years of a revolutionary real-world experience.”

The union says Government foot-dragging has created a vacuum that employers are now using to row back on support for remote and blended working. As an employer, the Government dragged out negotiations on a framework for blended working in the civil and public service, and we’ve seen the same approach on the legislation for a legal right to request.

From early 2021, Fórsa urged ministers not to lose the momentum created by the huge success of remote work during the pandemic. But that’s exactly what they’ve done, and employers’ representatives have withdrawn support for a radical shift to new ways of working. Ibec has said legislation is “premature” and the Dublin Chamber of Commerce has called for legislation to be postponed.

But all the evidence shows they are swimming against the tide as studies continue to show remote working to be productive and popular among workers.

A recent large study from NUI Galway’s Whitaker Institute and the Western Development Commission revealed that almost a third of respondents had changed jobs since 2020, with 47% of them saying remote working was a key factor in their decision.

Inflation is likely to average close to 8% over the whole of 2023 before falling gradually to around 4% by the middle of next year. That’s the latest view from the trade union-backed Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI).

The bleak assessment in the institute’s Summer Economic Report is that real incomes will fall for most households this year, and that wages are unlikely to keep pace with inflation.

And there’s a risk that the fall in real incomes will cause a decline in economic activity unless people start spending their savings, which looks unlikely given the current financial uncertainties. This means a short recession is possible, though NERI says it wouldn’t be anything like on the scale experienced following the 2009 crash or the recent pandemic.

The report says that both the public finances and employment growth remain strong, with youth unemployment at an all-time low. This points to a likely economic bounce-back in 2023, with the caveat that events in Ukraine and broader global economic and political uncertainties could bring unforeseen setbacks.

Fórsa recently launched its new membership database system (Solas) which is designed to improve the union’s communication with you, and to ensure we have up-to-date contact details for all our members.

This initiative was informed by the experience of the pandemic, which underlined the necessity for us to keep in touch with you through reliable digital contact details.

The new membership system is fully compliant with GDPR data protection requirements and allows you to update your contact details directly. You can do it HERE.

Personal

In anticipation of a possible ballot on a public service pay deal in the coming months, it’s crucial that we can contact you.

One way to ensure Fórsa can always provide you with the information you need is to provide a personal email address, as many employers block information sent from the union to your work email address. Even those that permit mail from Fórsa could choose to block union communications at any time.

Once we have your personal email address, we will always be able to reach you and ensure that you are fully updated on important developments, including ballots.

Privacy

Please share this message with colleagues who may not receive the Fórsa news bulletin. To update your details quickly and easily visit the update my details page on the Fórsa website and complete the online form.

You can download a copy of Fórsa’s privacy statement HERE, which sets out how Fórsa is committed to protecting and securing your personal data in accordance with Irish and EU data protection legislation, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU2016/679) and Irish Data Protection Act 2018.

Visit Update my details at forsa.ie 

We take a break from publishing the Fórsa ebulletin during August, which tends to be a relatively quiet time for industrial relations and trade union activity.

We’ll be back with the regular fortnightly bulletin from 26th August. But, in the meantime, we’ll be sending you special updates about any developments on public service pay negotiations or other urgent business.

Here’s hoping you get a chance to take a well-deserved break over the next few weeks. All of team here look forward to bringing you all the news and union views again from the end of next month.

Don’t forget to update your details online to ensure that you keep receiving these bulletins.

Applications are now open for the 2022 Fórsa Gaeltacht grant scheme, which will make 80 grants of €150 each available to assist children of Fórsa members attending residential Irish language courses in Gaeltacht areas this summer.

A further 40 grants of €70 are available to assist children to attend day-only Irish language courses held outside Gaeltacht areas.

Children of Fórsa members, who are aged between 11 years and 18 years of age on 1st July 2022, are eligible to apply for the grant scheme. You can download the application form HERE. Please download the form to a folder on your device prior to filling it out.

If you cannot use the fillable form online then please print the form, complete it in black pen and return it to: General Services Committee, Gaeltacht Scheme, Fórsa, Nerney’s Court, Dublin, D01 R2C5 to arrive before 5.30pm on Wednesday 31st August 2022.

All digital applications should be sent to Gaeltacht@forsa.ie. You should send any queries to the same address. 

There was good news for local employment service (LES) providers following the recently completed second round of a tendering process run by the Department of Social Protection. All the contracts tendered were secured by existing LES providers, many of whom were competing against private companies.

Fórsa official Lynn Coffey hailed the outcome.

“I am in no doubt, that keeping private companies out of these services at this tendering stage has only been achieved because of the interventions made by Fórsa and other unions to protect these services,” she said.

But she warned that a number of job clubs were now set to close, and that the union would now direct its efforts at securing decent redundancy terms for workers who have provided this vital service on a community not-for-profit basis for many years.

The joint union campaign by Fórsa and Siptu to protect local employment services (LES) and job clubs has been running since last year, as unions campaigned against the Government-imposed tendering process for LES and job clubs.

Unions had cautioned Government on the risk privatising LES, saying that job losses and a diminished employment service were likely if private companies took over the services.

Thanking members for their efforts in the campaign, Lynn asked them to stick with the campaign effort to secure better redundancy terms for job club colleagues.

She asked them to write to their local TDs using a template provided by the union. “The more individual members who send a copy of this letter to their local TD, the greater impact this campaign can achieve,” she said

You can find a link to the template letter by clicking HERE:

Unions have won the right for workers to get paid sick leave after new legislation passed through both houses of the Oireachtas earlier this week.

Before now, almost no worker had a legal right to paid sick leave, though collective agreements negotiated by Fórsa and other unions meant that about half of all employees in Ireland had access to paid sick leave.

Fórsa welcomed the new legal rights, which were the result of a sustained trade union campaign led by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

The new legislation will initially give a minimum entitlement of three days paid sick leave a year. This will rise to ten days in 2025. It will be paid by employers at 70% of gross salary or up to €110 a day.

Employees will have to present a medical certificate to avail of statutory sick pay. And they don’t become eligible until they’ve worked for their employer for 13 weeks.

Ireland was previously one of few advanced economies in Europe without a mandatory sick leave entitlement. Almost all European countries legally require employers to continue to pay staff, in full or in part, when they are if sick and unable to work for a period.

ICTU general secretary Patricia King said the new landmark legislation ended Ireland’s failed voluntary approach to sick pay.

“This will be an enduring positive legacy of the pandemic. Up to now, Ireland was one of just a handful of wealthy countries globally that did not guarantee workers paid sick leave from their employer when unfit for work.

“Paid sick days were treated as a perk of the job that employers could decide whether to include in a contract of employment. As a result, over one million employees, are not covered for sick pay in their terms and conditions,” she said.

More than 38 million people in Europe can’t afford a week's holiday despite being employed, according to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). It said poverty wages had added three million to last year’s figures.

While access to holidays has grown over the last decade, the majority of the EU’s low-income families EU remain excluded. Overall, 28% of EU citizens can’t afford a one-week holiday away from home.

The ETUC listed Romania, Greece and Lithuania as the worst affected EU countries. Italy, Spain and France also have high numbers of workers missing out on a break for financial reasons.

The ETUC, which counts the Irish Congress of Trade Unions among its affiliates, has been highlighting holiday inequality as part of its efforts to strengthen the EU’s directive on adequate minimum wages and collective bargaining.

The directive, designed to ensure adequate minimum wages, enable a decent standard of living, guard against in-work poverty and reduce wage inequality, is to be formally approved by the parliament and the EU employment and social-affairs council in September.

Significant action is needed to meet Government commitments to improve legal protections for workers in Ireland according to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC).

In its latest report to the Council of Europe, the commission highlighted the absence of a legal right to collective bargaining which, it said, led to an imbalance of power between workers and their employers. It recommended immediate Government action to address these gaps.

The IHREC’s chief commissioner Sinéad Gibney identified the need for an organised and robust workforce, with access to union representation for effective worker representation and negotiations on pay and working conditions.

“Workers’ rights are key to accessing a range of other rights. If you’re low paid, working long hours under pressure, cut off from information about your job security, and unable to join a union, this impacts your health, your family, and whether you can afford adequate accommodation or childcare,” she said.

The report also expressed concerns about inadequate protections for employees, discriminatory policies that affect disabled employees, and the prevalence of discrimination and sexual harassment in our labour market.

“No one should suffer discrimination due to their economic or social situation. Yet we see this happen daily throughout the country. It is vital that the State steps up and delivers on its commitments to all people working to earn a living,” said Gibney.

The commission called on the Government to show more ambition in the introduction of a new ground of discrimination, based on socio-economic disadvantaged status, in Ireland’s equality legislation. State-commissioned research on this has yet to be published.

It also recommended that the Employment Equality Acts be amended to address gaps in protections for domestic workers. Read the report HERE.