Section 39 workers have united in a digital campaign, highlighting the failure of successive governments to address their 13-year long pay freeze. ‘Unfinished business: Don’t ignore community services’ is calling on the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green party administration to take action, and ensure equal pay for equal work.  

While Section 39 workers had their pay cut in line with public servants during the last financial crisis, they have not enjoyed the same subsequent pay restoration as their HSE counterparts. These workers provide a range of crucial public services to communities, yet they are not employed under public service terms and conditions. 

This leg of the long-standing campaign includes a video featuring Fórsa members telling their story. It highlights how this injustice has affected their lives, and the lives of Section 39 workers around the country. 

There is also an email your TD element to the campaign, encouraging supporters to reach out to their local elected representatives, and raise this issue as an urgent matter which needs addressing.  

Addressing a rally staged by hundreds of Section 39 workers and CE Supervisors last February, Fórsa general secretary, Kevin Callinan said, “A state that fails to take responsibility for the delivery of key services, is an irresponsible state. A state that fails to treat the workers providing those key services fairly, is an unjust state. A state that cuts these services, often to the weakest in our society, is a sick state.” 

Staff turnover

Fórsa official, Catherine Keogh, said the sector is characterised by high staff turnover because of the lack of movement on pay, as staff move on to better opportunities elsewhere. 

“This creates uncertainty and delay for service users, which we want to avoid at all costs,” she said. 

Throughout the pandemic, Section 39 workers in Dublin’s homelessness and drug support facilities outperformed predicted best-case scenarios for Covid-19 mortality rates among the homeless and drug using populations. 

Fórsa official, Seán McElhinney, said that these workers consistently go above and beyond the call of duty to protect service users.  

“Section 39 workers were overworked and underpaid in comparison to their HSE counterparts before the crisis, and the pandemic has only served to exacerbate that inequality,” he said. 

Many Section 39 workers were also redeployed during the Covid response, including chair of Fórsa’s Boards and Voluntary Agencies branch, Helen Canning. 

“I was sent into Bridge House, which is an isolation unit for people in Direct Provision who are Covid positive. 

“Our members, myself included, are 13 years with a pay freeze, and the services haven’t decreased. I don’t know what more they want from us?” Helen pleaded. 

CE scheme pensions

Another cohort of workers suffering injustice under the Unfinished Business umbrella are  Community Employment (CE) Supervisors, as successive governments have failed to address their 12-year old pension claim.  

This campaign is also calling on the new government to take action, and implement a 2008 Labour Court recommendation, which ruled that CE Supervisors are entitled to an occupational pension.  

Over a thousand workers, many retired or approaching retirement, are suffering hardship because of successive governments’ failure to implement the Labour Court’s recommendation. 

Expressing his frustration of over the decade long wait, Chair of Fórsa’s CE Supervisor branch, Ian Thomas said the work they do is not properly valued, or treated with the deserved respect.  

“We are carrying out work on behalf of the government, carrying out government policies, we’re implementing a government work programme. In essence we are civil servants, but we don’t have the same benefits,” he said. 

It’s never been more important – or more easy – to get the protections and benefits of union membership. Join Fórsa HERE or contact the union HERE.