Civil servants are due a 1% pay increase with effect from 1st January 2018, under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA). The agreement will deliver income restoration worth over 7% of salary to more than 70% of civil and public servants between now and 2020. 
 

The final piece of the Fórsa jigsaw was put in place on 2nd January, when the Registrar for Friendly Societies confirmed that the new union was registered and cleared to start work on behalf of more than 80,000 members. 
 

Civil service clerical and executive officers with 12 years’ service will receive an extra day’s annual leave from 1st January 2018. Fórsa is currently in discussions with management about applying the leave changes to civil service grades analogous with clerical and executive officers. 

Civil servants who want to revert to ‘pre-Haddington Road’ working hours – with a pro-rata salary reduction – can apply to do so between now and April 2018. The opportunity, which was negotiated by Fórsa as part of the Public Services Stability Agreement (PSSA), will then close before briefly reopening between January and April 2021.

Precarious working arrangements have now spread across the economy and feature increasingly in public administration, health and education, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). The alarming growth in precarious work since 2008 has prompted ICTU to urge the Government to legislate to address the problem.