Following the recent publication of Fórsa’s position paper on the local bargaining terms of the Public Service Agreement 2024 - 2026 (PSA), the union’s Civil Service division has identified its ‘bargaining units’ for negotiations over the next 12 months.

The local bargaining clause in the agreement provides for claims or proposals up to 3% of the payroll cost, inclusive of allowances, for a ‘bargaining unit’, which could be a grade, group or category.

Fórsa’s Civil Service division has identified the following grades as its units for the local bargaining process:

• Clerical officer
• Executive officer, higher executive officer, administrative officer
• Professional grades
• Technical grades
• Service officer and cleaner grades
• State industrial Civil Service grades

In a letter to the Department of Public Expenditure, Fórsa deputy general secretary Éamonn Donnelly said the concept of local bargaining differs greatly from the sectoral bargaining arrangements contained in the previous public service pay agreement, Building Momentum: “Under the provisions of the current agreement, grade, groups and categories are entitled to make claims within set parameters.

“In the coming weeks Fórsa will be consulting with all its constituent grades in order to determine the structure of forthcoming claims in line with the provisions of the agreement.

“During the last agreement, the department’s response to almost every claim served was to refer to the cost-increasing restrictions under the previous agreements or to defer matters to the local bargaining provisions.

“This process enables us to grapple with problems specific to grades, groups or categories of employee, so it’s more flexible, and more dynamic. We’ve advised the department that claims within a single bargaining unit will, inevitably, vary in structure, particularly in the absence of any real clarity on the agility of bargaining units under this process,” he said.

Éamonn added that the bargaining units for clerical officers and executive officer/higher executive officer would take account of developments across the public sector for similar grades.

While other cost increasing claims are precluded, the local bargaining mechanism represents a significant improvement on the blanket exclusion of cost-increasing claims that has been a feature of public service agreements for several years.

Although only the first phase of any outcomes will be implemented during the lifetime of the current agreement (up to June 2026), the 3% amount provides scope to make reasonable progress.

Local negotiations can start in July 2024. They can run until June 2025.

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