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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.

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Action on new entrants must be fast-tracked
by Bernard Harbor

Fórsa has called on the Government to allocate funds in October’s Budget to begin shortening pay scales for ‘new entrants’ to non-commercial semi-state organisations next year. This would be earlier than originally envisaged in the current public sector pay deal, the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA).

Speaking at the union’s Civil Service Division conference in Killarney last week, Fórsa joint general secretary Tom Geraghty accepted that no money was budgeted to resolve the injustice in 2018.

“While it is correct to say that no monies have been allocated to do this in 2018, I believe that Ireland’s strengthening economic and exchequer recovery means it should be possible to start funding it next year, rather than delaying until 2020 or beyond. That would require funds to be allocated in October’s Budget,” he said.

Tom and other officers of ICTU’s Public Services Committee will meet senior Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) officials to discuss the matter on Friday (27th April). The talks are taking place under the PSSA agreement, negotiated last summer, which allows for an “examination” of the new entrants’ pay issue.

Measures in the agreement are applied in non-commercial semi-state organisations.

Friday’s meeting is likely to be the first of a series of engagements dealing with the practicalities of equalising the length of pay scales. The Government has not conceded Fórsa’s call for some money to change hands next year, despite recent media reports that pay adjustments may be “on the way” for new entrants.

The union has also cautioned that media reports of payments averaging €3,300 a year are overblown, as this figure includes employer costs – like employers’ PRSI payments – which do not appear in pay packets.

The term ‘new entrants’ refers to those employed in the public service and non-commercial semi-states since January 2011. Their pay scales are currently two points longer than those of other staff, which means it takes them two years longer to get to the top of their pay scale.

Negotiators must confront the technical challenges presented by the fact that the length of pay scales varies widely across the civil and public service. Unions also want to ensure that any solution is fair to all new entrants, regardless of how long they have been employed.

Tom said pay equity was a priority for all trade unions, which had addressed the inequity in various national pay talks. “Every bit of progress in addressing this injustice has been achieved by unions collectively, through national pay negotiations and public service pay agreements,” he said.

CE supervisors consider industrial action over 10-year pension wait
Community employment supervisors say 10-year wait has been "fruitless"
by Bernard Harbor

Community employment (CE) supervisors are considering industrial action in a 10-year dispute over pensions. The 1,250 staff concerned have no access to any occupational pension scheme.

Fórsa national secretary Angela Kirk told the union's Services & Enterprises Divisional conference in Galway that a 2008 Labour Court recommendation, which ordered that an agreed pension scheme should be put in place for the staff, has never been either accepted or rejected by successive Governments.

Almost 250 supervisors have retired with no occupational pension since the 2008 Labour Court recommendation was published. Between 30 and 40 are currently retiring each year.

In what has become a torturous process, the Labour Relations Commission ordered the establishment of a ‘high level forum’ to deal with the issue in 2015. But the Forum only convened four times, before it broke down last April after making zero progress. The issue was again raised in public service pay talks last summer, but no progress has yet followed.

Last month, Fórsa’s community employment supervisors’ branch voted to reactivate an earlier ballot for industrial action because the process had stalled again. “This course of action was previously shelved while negotiations appeared to hold out the prospect of some progress,” according to Ms Kirk.

Unique

“The union raised this issue at the highest level during the Public Service Stability Agreement negotiations last May. As a result, a number of high-level meetings took place with DPER last autumn. It is ten years since the problem was addressed by the Labour Court, and we will not continue to wait, year after year after year, for some movement on this scandalous situation.

“Virtually uniquely in the public sector, CE supervisors have no occupational pension provision at all. They provide crucial supports to long-term unemployed people and the communities they live in, yet they are condemned by successive government inaction to eke out a retirement living on the state pension,” she said.

Carmel Keogh of Fórsa’s CE supervisors’ branch said: “We spend our careers helping disadvantaged and marginalised people, and the long-term unemployed, to gain work in the local community as a stepping stone to regular employment. But when we retire, we become disadvantaged ourselves. It’s scandalous that three successive Governments have failed to accept and act on a recommendation from the State’s highest industrial relations authority. We can’t, and won’t, wait forever.”

Approximately 25,000 people currently benefit from community employment schemes, which provide training and support to participants, as well as community services like crèches, meals on wheels, tidy towns support, and the upkeep of community facilities including GAA and soccer pitches. Some schemes have success rates – in terms of progression into employment – as high as 75%.

Fórsa lead organiser Joe O'Connor led a cross-party briefing on the issue in the Dáil last week (pictured).

Related:

Minister’s CE scheme plans at risk if pension issue is not resolved - Fórsa website, published Friday 20th April 2018

Aer Lingus warned of possible action over breach of agreement
by Bernard Harbor

An emergency motion to Fórsa’s Services & Enterprises Divisional conference called on the union to take action to ensure that Aer Lingus complies with a union-management agreement covering staff consultation. The move came after the airline announced it intended to withdraw unilaterally from an ‘Internal Dispute Resolution Board’ (IDRB), which was established in 2016, at management’s request, to help reduce conflict and the prospect of industrial action.

IDRBs are now common in the commercial semi-state sector and aviation, where they provide a forum for discussions and staff input on business decisions that may impact on jobs, pay and working conditions.

Aer Lingus wrote to Fórsa last month to say it was withdrawing from the Aer Lingus IDRB. In a response on 4th April, Fórsa head of division Angela Kirk said the union regarded this as a breach of a collective agreement.

“Alterations to a collective agreement require the agreement of the parties and Fórsa does not accept that Aer Lingus can unilaterally alter a collective agreement. Fórsa will continue to refer appropriate cases to the IDRB. We reserve the right to take whatever action we deem appropriate in order to ensure compliance with this collective agreement,” she said.

In her opening address to conference, outgoing divisional chair and Aer Lingus worker Gillian White said the company IDRB was working for both management and staff.

“We have established a more effective voice for staff in the company and we felt there was more chance that management would start to listen. But they have walked away, in my view because they were not getting their way on every single issue.

“It’s inevitable that, if this unnecessary and ill-advised act is not reversed, it will be more difficult to conduct productive industrial relations, and deal constructively with the conflicts that inevitably arise in this highly competitive sector,” she said.

Creative

Fórsa has negotiated the introduction of IDRBs in a number of State commercial companies including the Irish Aviation Authority, Dublin Airport Authority, and Coillte. The union sees them as creative industrial relations fora that can avoid disputes and the threat of disputes, while reducing dependence on the Labour Court and other state dispute mechanisms.

Ms White told conference delegates: “IDRBs result in a more engaged and informed workforce, more consultation and staff input into business decisions, greater understanding of the competitive and regulatory environment among workers, and a better understanding of workers’ fears among managers. All this contributes to a better environment with fewer industrial disputes, and more agreements on terms and conditions of employment.”

Ms White said workers across the private and semi-state sector – including in telecoms, aviation and postal services – were facing the challenge of increased competition, new regulatory regimes, structural changes and, in some cases, the threat of privatisation.

“For many of them, including aviation, recovery and economic growth themselves bring challenges for workers as management seeks more and more productivity as labour markets tighten. But labour market pressures bring opportunities to improve pay, conditions and union representation too.

“For example, it is clear that pilot shortages – coupled with the long-standing and courageous campaign of our Ialpa branch – are what drove Ryanair to talk to this union at the end of last year. There is a very long road to travel to normalise collective bargaining in the company. But I think this conference will rightly want to applaud the work and commitment of Ialpa and our officials in bringing about this important breakthrough,” she said.

Text of the emergency motion proposed by Fórsa Services and Enterprises Divisional Executive Committee:

“Following receipt of correspondence from Aer Lingus management dated the 9th March 2018, which indicates management’s intention to unilaterally withdraw from a collective agreement which established the existence of the IDRB we call on the incoming Divisional Executive to take what steps it deems appropriate to ensure that Aer Lingus honour the terms of the this agreement.”

Fórsa wins agreement on additional driving testers
Deal will help prevent possible trebling of waiting times
by Bernard Harbor

Fórsa has reached agreement with the Road Safety Authority (RSA) on the establishment of a panel of additional driver testers to deal with an expected surge in demand for driving tests on foot of proposed new sanctions on car owners who allow their vehicles to be used by unaccompanied learner drivers.

Following negotiations with the union, the RSA is seeking departmental sanction to establish a panel of up to 100 additional driver-testers, who would be available to work in test centres around the country when the need arises.

Fórsa says measures in the amended Road Traffic Bill could double demand for driving tests in the short term. It says this could increase the average waiting time to as much as 55 weeks unless extra testers are made available.

Once enacted, the legislation will introduce fines of up to €2,000, or six months imprisonment, for motorists who allow their vehicles to be used by unaccompanied learner drivers. The bill will also allow the detention of vehicles illegally driven by learner drivers.

The union has also called for a much smaller number of extra driver testers to be employed on a permanent basis to cover increased ongoing demand for tests on foot of economic recovery.

Fórsa says the number of driver-testers has fallen by almost 20% since 2007. As a result, average waiting times have risen to 14 weeks on foot of the economic recovery. This is four weeks more than the Road Safety Authority’s 10-week target, which was previously being met.

Addressing delegates at Fórsa's Services & Enterprises conference in Galway on 13th April, official Ashley Connolly called on the Department of Transport to sanction the creation of the panel without delay. “Fórsa supports the measures in the Road Traffic Bill because they will improve road safety. But we need to quickly put the necessary measures in place to prevent a huge backlog of driving tests and a potential trebling of waiting times,” she said.

Ashley said the union had also discussed other ways of reducing waiting times with the Road Safety Authority, and was willing to look at additional flexibility measures. “The number of driver testers has fallen from 126 in 2007 to only 102 today,” she said.

20% increase in air traffic controller numbers required
by Bernard Harbor

Fórsa has called for a 20% increase in the number of air traffic controllers to maintain safe services against a background of rising demand for air travel.

Fórsa has called for a 20% increase in the number of air traffic controllers to maintain safe services against a background of rising demand for air travel. Delegates at the union’s Services and Enterprises Divisional conference heard that 350 air traffic controllers were required, rather than the current complement of 290.

Fórsa’s Air Traffic Control branch said new recruits were now obliged to sign up to a voluntary overtime scheme agreed with the union, because of staff shortages. Although large numbers of existing controllers – 70% - are signed up to the voluntary scheme, new entrants were being contractually required to do so.

Fórsa official Johnny Fox said there were safety concerns around making overtime compulsory and significant extra recruitment was the only effective remedy for staff shortages. “The current complement of air traffic controllers is 90 short of the 350 needed to carry out the work efficiently and safely. We have no objection to safe levels of voluntary overtime, but forcing overtime on new entrants is not acceptable,” he said.

The conference passed a motion [Motion 4] calling on the union to “ensure that frontline safety-critical personnel should not be subject to mandatory overtime clauses in contracts of employment.”

Alan Singleton, Chair of the Fórsa Air Traffic Control branch said his members were the final barrier in the aviation safety chain. “We need to be alert and focussed 100% of the time. Any worker deemed critical in the management of safety must be able to say ‘no’ to extra attendance outside of contracted hours,” he said.

Air traffic controllers have had an agreed voluntary ‘call-in’ scheme since 2009. The union recently agreed that air traffic controllers could be asked by management to do more overtime in specific circumstances than previously allowed. However, this is entirely voluntary and they have the right to refuse.

Third terminal would be blow to regional development
Extra Dublin airport terminal would concentrate development in 'overheating' area
by Bernard Harbor

Opening a third terminal at Dublin airport would further concentrate tourism and economic development in the overheating greater Dublin area, damaging prospects for balanced regional development, according to Fórsa.

Delegates to the union’s Services and Enterprises conference, held in Galway earlier in April, heard that 95% of passenger growth between 2012 and 2017 went to the capital, which now accounts for over 85% of passenger traffic in and out of Irish airports.

A department of transport-commissioned review of airport capacity, which is being conducted by UK consultants Oxford Economics and Cambridge Economic Policy Associates, is expected to report soon.

The Fórsa conference backed a motion [Motion7] that condemned the failure of successive governments to develop a regional aviation policy, and called on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to press the Government for a regional approach to aviation development.

Joe Buckley of Fórsa’s IAESA (Irish Aviation Executive Staff Association) branch said less than 15% of Ireland’s passenger traffic was shared between Shannon, Cork, Kerry, Knock and Donegal airports. He said research by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) had found that access to airports is crucial to high-tech foreign direct investment and knowledge-intensive firms, as well as inbound tourism.

Regional access

“If the Government really wants to attract jobs to our regions, it must develop and implement an aviation policy capable of better distributing passenger traffic to all regions. The lack of a strong focus on regional access is hampering the development of rural jobs and the Irish economy, particularly in tourism and foreign direct investment. A regional aviation policy should be the cornerstone of Government policy on order to achieve the objectives of its tourism, jobs, planning and rural action programmes,” he said.

Fórsa assistant general secretary Johnny Fox singled out Shannon airport, saying it was operating far below capacity. “Shannon is struggling to achieve growth. It has capacity to cater for 4.5 million passengers a year, but only 1.75 million go through its departure gates. The last thing we need is a third Dublin terminal when Shannon, Cork and other regional airports – which should be driving balanced regional economic development – are themselves struggling to survive,” he said.

The conference also opposed further privatisation of Irish airports. A motion from the Fórsa IAESA branch cited the transport department’s capacity review and the potential break-up of Irish Aviation Authority functions as potential enablers of public asset sell-offs in the sector.

Fórsa audio bulletin episode 6
by Hazel Gavigan (audio editor)

A special episode focusing on Fórsa's first ever services and enterprises and civil servcie divisional conferences. Starting with the services and enterprises division on the 12th and 13th of April and then the civil service division on the 18th and 19th, we cover some of the main motions discussed over the four days. Presented by Hazel Gavigan and Diarmaid Mac A Bhaird.

Also in this issue

Youth Committee events news
by Niall Shanahan

Forsa's Youth Committee has not one, but two events coming up, kicking off with the next meeting of the committee this coming Thursday (26th April) from 2pm to 4pm at Nerney's Court. The meeting is preceded by training for members of the committee from 11am.

Fórsa lead organiser Joe O'Connor is actively encouraging Fórsa members, aged 35 or under, to contact him directly if you've an interest in joining the committee.

The Youth Committee is also hosting a quiz event at Nerney's Court on Thursday 3rd May, more details are available here, and Facebook event details are available here.

Union wants An post job talks

Fórsa will seek an urgent meeting with An Post management following newspaper reports that as many as 2,000 jobs could be at risk in the company.

Although it expects the company to seek additional staffing reductions, the union believes that the figure of 2,000 is overblown because the organisation has returned to profit since it was first mooted in a March 2017 review.

Fórsa official Dennis Keane said the union would not accept compulsory redundancies, and added that expected management to continue to work constructively with the union on this issue.

Fórsa meets Eir management on job cut plans
by NIall Shanahan & Bernard Harbor

Fórsa trade union met with management at Eir for a briefing meeting last week following the telecom company’s announcement that it's to cut 750 jobs. Fórsa represents IT staff, some management grades and clerical officers at the company.

Fórsa assistant general secretary Eugene Quinn said the announcement followed widespread speculation about job losses following the recent change of ownership of the company.

“We’re obviously very concerned that more jobs are to be shed from the company. We quickly established that the company is seeking voluntary – not compulsory – redundancies. That would be in line with agreements we have in place to provide very strong protections for our members against forced job losses.

“Nevertheless, we sought an early meeting to discuss the many implications of the announcement for workers in the company. We wanted to engage with management as soon as we could in order to get a clear picture of the company’s future, and put an end to any further speculation,” he said.

Eugene said that last week's meeting confirmed the status of the redundancies as entirely voluntary. Up to last Friday (20th April) the company had received 500 expressions of interest in the voluntary redundancy package.

Eugene said the company had also confirmed its intention to vacate the HSQ building, beside Heuston station in Dublin and locate staff at CityWest.

Emergency motion

An emergency motion was tabled by the Eir branch of Fórsa at the union's Services & Enterprises conference in Galway. The motion calls on Fórsa to ensure there are no compulsory redundancies by the new owners and management within Eir. The motion asks Fórsa to engage with the government to "ensure highly trained and specialised work is not continued to be exported from the country."

The motion, which was backed unanimously by conference delegates, states "At the current rate EIR will become a company of 2,000 employees down from a company 15,000, while the majority of work “will” be done off-shore."

Air traffic controllers oppose privatisation
by Bernard Harbor

Delegates at Fórsa’s Services and Enterprises divisional conference insisted that the Irish Airport Authority (IAA) should remain in public ownership. The union fears that the IAA may follow a European trend towards privatisation, particularly if its regulatory functions are split from other company activity.

Alan Singleton, chair of Fórsa’s Air Traffic Control branch said the company was currently a self-financing publicly-owned company, which was among Europe’s cheapest providers of air traffic services.

“There is no objective reason to privatise the IAA, but there is a growing European trend in this direction. Five out of 38 European providers are now privatised, including in large countries like Britain, Italy and Spain. I worry that this Government, or a future government, may be tempted to grab a large cash injection by selling off this efficient and solvent exporter, which is among Europe’s cheapest providers of air traffic services. Fórsa and other aviation unions must be prepared to oppose any move towards privatisation,” he said.

Mr Singleton said that private providers of air traffic services were among the most expensive. “The most expensive are those that have been privatised, proving that non-state ownership is not good for passengers who ultimately pick up the tab,” he said.

The conference backed a motion that called on the union to work to ensure that the IAA remains in State ownership.

14,000 carers to benefit from free GP care
by Niall Shanahan

The Department of Health is to draft legislation to allow 14,000 carers to benefit from free GP care. The legislation is to provide in law for eligibility for GP services without charge to be extended to all those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Benefit.

Announcing that he had received Cabinet approval to draft the legislation earlier this month, Minister for Health Simon Harris said, "This Government recognises the need for further supports for those who are caring for the most vulnerable in our society.

“This measure will enable people who are in receipt of full, or half-rate, Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Benefit to qualify automatically for GP care without fees. Carers willingly give up a great deal to provide care to family members and others, and I hope that this concrete support from the State for their mental and physical wellbeing will help alleviate some of the strain," he said.

Government plans to provide free GP visit cards, and additional spending on respite care, were announced last December.

The measures were welcomed by Family Carers Ireland. However, the family carers advocacy organisation said that, as only one in four carers actually receive Carer’s Allowance - mainly due to the means test - the group has called for all carers in receipt of the Carer’s Support Grant to receive the card, extending the service to 25,000 additional carers.

Further supports and information for carers are available from the HSE here.

Family Carers Ireland website.

BLOG: When the man with a van is his very own man
by Bernard Harbor

We used to joke that my younger brother Kevin was from the Dutch side of the family. We were Harbors and he was a Van Driver. Geddit?

Anyway, he drove a van for a living and one day, much to our surprise, Kevin announced that he was now self-employed.

In our late-1980s working class circle, this seemingly entrepreneurial break from the world of employment was as unusual as it was unexpected.

Except it wasn’t what it seemed.

(Contd.)

What had happened was this. One morning, Kevin’s boss told him he was now self-employed. He could rent the van and would do his deliveries as before. Only now he was a contractor, not an employee. And he’d have to sort out his own tax and insurance.

They privatised the buses around the same time. That’s another story but, like Kevin’s newfound small businessman status, back then it seemed as inexplicable as it was unsettling.

Sure enough, a short while later the ‘contracts’ from (though not the van repayments to) Kevin’s former boss thinned out. Then they disappeared. No redeployment. No holiday pay. No redundancy. No responsibilities.

Cool platforms

Almost three decades later, as the Ubers, Deliveroos, Amazons and others rushed to explain that they were ‘platforms’ not employers, I started to hear the term ‘gig economy.’ I came to realise that my unwitting little brother was among its pioneers but, no matter how cool it might sound now, I was right about that unsettling feeling.

Countless workers who would simply have been employees in previous eras now work as ‘contractors’ without the protections against sub-minimum wage and unfair dismissal – or benefits like paid holidays and sick leave – that the rest of us take for granted.

Cue teams of legal, trade union and academic experts wrestling with the distinction between employed and contractor status, and the thorny challenge of maintaining employees’ rights in situations where – how to put it? – they just ain’t employees.

One of those experts, Jeremias Prassl of Magdalen College Oxford, spoke at the prestigious Industrial Relations News conference in Dublin earlier this year. He reckons substantive aspects of laws governing rights at work need to be reviewed to protect workers in the new dispensation.

Confronted with zero-hour arrangements, bogus self-employment, and other new forms of work organisation, Professor Prassl said unions must address the limits of laws on unfair dismissal, minimum wages, and qualifying periods for job protection.

But he says reform of social welfare and taxation policy is as, if not more, important. That’s because the so-called gig economy is luring people away from standard employment relationships by offering them a “no income tax” proposition.

Less attractive

Stephen Holst of legal firm McCann Fitzgerald agrees that tax and PRSI reforms “could be the biggest driver of change” in this area. He says at least €60 million a year is lost to the Irish exchequer through the false classification of work as self-employment, which allows companies to avoid paying employers’ PRSI.

Holst said these arrangements – including the prospect of lower income tax bills – can look attractive to workers at first. But they are less appealing when you need to fall back on PRSI-related benefits like maternity leave, pensions and social security.

Prassi said there was evidence that the gig economy was causing huge tax losses in other jurisdictions too. And he added that moving workers out of the PAYE system meant they carried all the burden of tax compliance.

Yet this issue could be relatively easy to address because all the data about who works, who for, and for how much, exists on the platforms – like Uber and Deliveroo – that typify the gig economy.

Should those of us in steady employment be concerned? A recent report from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) found that precarious ‘gig economy’ working arrangements were now spreading, including into the seemingly safe neighbourhoods of public administration, health and education.

Insecure and Uncertain: Precarious Work in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, revealed that 8% of the Republic’s workforce – or over 158,000 people – see significant variations in their weekly or monthly working hours. Another 7% are in temporary employment, often simply because they can’t find permanent work.

The union study found that female and young workers are most likely to be stuck in precarious or insecure jobs. And, while uncertain work is most common in distribution, hotels, catering, retail and construction, it’s spreading to other areas including the public service.

Alarming

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 to provide workers with a written statement of their terms and conditions from day one of their employment.

Meanwhile, Labour’s Ged Nash is to speak at Fórsa’s Services and Enterprises Divisional conference about his proposed legislation aimed at strengthening protections for precarious workers. His proposals go further than new laws envisaged by the Government, which would ban zero hour contracts in all situations except emergency cover, short-term relief work, or genuine casual work.

The Congress report says the coalition’s approach is insufficient against the background of a dramatic 34% rise in part-time work and self-employment, which it says is “indicative of significant growth in bogus or false self-employment.”

Meanwhile, Professor Prassl says unions must avoid “falling into a crazy Luddite trap,” and should instead take on the negative aspects of the changing economy while embracing technology and innovation. “Over the centuries, technology has never destroyed the net amount of work, but it has made it better, safer, and more fun,” he says.

Unions also face the practical challenge of developing services that gig workers actually want. Things like advice on contracts and intelligence about good and bad ‘gig’ employers are not standard trade union fare, but they would be a real boost to the Kevins of today.

On the plus side, Prassl makes the rather obvious point that reaching and communicating with gig workers shouldn’t be that difficult, After all, they are – they have to be – among the most IT and social media literate people on the planet.

In any case, unions will have to up their game to stay relevant if, as seems likely, the sector keeps growing at its current rate.

This article was first published in Issue No.2 of Fórsa magazine which is available in your workplace now. You can download the magazine here.