The second pay adjustment provided for in the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) came into effect from 1st October 2018. The adjustment is the second this year, following a 1% adjustment in January.

Updated salary scales for grades represented by the union, across the unions divisions are now being updated on the Fórsa website. Salary scales for the Education, Civil Service and Local Government divisions are already available, while updates on salary scales for the other divisions will be completed shortly.

Please see the links below for updated scales here:

• Education
• Civil Service
• Local Government

Main provisions of the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA):

• 1st January 2018: 1% pay adjustment
• 1st October 2018: 1% pay adjustment
• 1st January 2019: Pension levy threshold up from €28,750 to €32,000 (worth €325 pa)
• 1st January 2019: 1% pay adjustment for those earning less than €30,000
• 1st September 2019: 1.75% pay adjustment
• 1st January 2020: Pension levy threshold increased to €34,500 (worth €250 pa)
• 1st January 2020: 0.5% pay increase for those earning less than €32,000
• 1st October 2020: 2% pay adjustment

CE supervisors and assistant supervisors are to ballot for industrial action, as the 10-year dispute over pensions remains unresolved.

The 1,250 staff concerned have no access to any occupational pension scheme.

Fórsa has arranged a series of regional information meetings in order to deliver a report on all developments in relation to the pension claim and to conduct the ballot for industrial action.

CE supervisors and assistant supervisors have been advised to contact their union if they are unable to attend a meeting in their area.

An aggregate ballot will be counted at noon on Friday 17th November.

‘We can’t, and won’t, wait forever’

Fórsa national secretary Angela Kirk told the union’s Services and Enterprises conference in April this year 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.

“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 April 2017 after making zero progress. The issue was again raised in public service pay talks last summer, but no progress has yet followed,“ 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.”

Regional meeting schedule

• Dublin. Liberty Hall, Dublin City, Tuesday 9th October, 7pm
• Donegal. Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny, Wednesday 10th October, 7pm
• Sligo. Fórsa Offices lce House, Fish Quay, Thursday 18th October, 7pm
• Galway. Clayton Hotel, Wednesday 17th October, 7pm
• Limerick. Fórsa Offices, Roxborough Road, Tuesday 23rd October, 7pm
• Kerry. Farranfore GAA Club, Farranfore, Wednesday 24th October, 7pm
• Cork. SIPTU Offices, Connolly Hall, Lapps's Quay, Monday 12th November, 7pm
• Waterford. SIPTU Offices Connolly Hall, Summerhill, Tuesday 13th November, 7pm
• Wicklow. Grand Hotel, Wicklow Town, Wednesday 7th November, 7pm
• Portlaoise. Maldron Hotel, Tuesday 6th November, 7pm
• Drogheda. Millmount Museum, Wednesday 14th November, 7pm

The Civil Service rate for overnight domestic subsistence allowance has increased, effective from 1st October, following an agreed review. The day rates remain unchanged.

The revised rate of €147.00 replaces the current rate of €133.73.

Due to the exceptionally high cost of hotel accommodation in Dublin, especially at peak periods, a new vouched rate for Dublin was introduced last year. Previously the rate had been capped at €167 – consisting of the overnight rate plus the ’10-hour’ subsistence rate – for which a hotel receipt must be provided.

This has now increased to €147.00 plus the 10-hour day rate of €33.61.

Under the terms of the Haddington Road Agreement (2013), the Government signalled its intention to conduct a review of how travel and subsistence rates are calculated. The agreement committed unions and management to cooperating with the review, and with the implementation of a standardised system of travel and subsistence across the public service.

For more details, the circular from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is available here.

When unions negotiated the Haddington Road Agreement in 2013, they successfully merged the pre-2010 and post-2010 pay scales. The remaining issue to be resolved was that post-2010 recruits had two additional points on their pay scales, which means it takes them two years longer to reach the top of their scale.

The newly agreed measures identify two points on each pay scale - year four and year eight - which new entrant public servants will now skip.

Under the terms agreed in the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) last year, we achieved a commitment to resolve the remaining issue, which has now been brought to a conclusion two years earlier than originally anticipated. This completes the task we began by merging the pay scales in 2013.

The measures will apply on the next increment date falling on or after 1st March 2019.

For more information, a full copy of the agreed measures and an illustrated model of how new entrants measures are to be applied, visit the Fórsa website.

Fórsa and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority have established a joint industrial relation council to deal with matters including pay, working conditions and employment practices. The agreement establishing the Council also recognises Fórsa as the sole representative organisation for workers in the authority.

Both parties accepted a procedural agreement for the forum over the summer. Talks were facilitated by former general secretary of the PSEU, Dan Murphy.

The council, which has already met on two occasions, appointed former CPSU general secretary John O’Dowd as chairperson.

Fórsa official Johnny Fox said the council was a mechanism that would enhance relations and provide a more robust process to deal with any issues. “The Council will provide an improved structure for relations between the union and the authority, and will also facilitate greater co-operation on industrial issues.

“The council will also allow for greater engagement and participations for our members working for the authority,” he said.

The National Museums Science & Arts Attendants branch recently celebrated reaching agreement in the long running pay and overtime integration negotiations.

The deal was concluded recently following a breakthrough side agreement to bring the negotiations to a close at the PSSA talks last year.

The branch laid its first claim for the consolidation of overtime and weekend working into basic pay nearly 12 years ago.

In the picture Liam Walsh (branch secretary), official Paul MacSweeney, Willie Doyle (branch chair) and Eoin Ronayne, Fórsa general secretary.

The rally coincided with a cross-party motion in the Dáil calling on the Government to enact legislation to lower rents, make it illegal to evict private sector tenants into homelessness and insert a right to housing into the constitution.

The motion also called for a doubling of the capital expenditure on public housing in Budget 2019 and subsequently passed by a wide margin.

Fórsa was well represented with staff and activists out in full support. Sheila Nunan, president of ICTU was MC and speakers included Orla O’Connor, director, National Women’s Council of Ireland, Síona Cahill, president, Union of Students in Ireland and Fr. Peter McVerry.

Senator Frances Black and singer/songwriter Damien Dempsey performed at the rally.

There are approximately ten thousand people who are homeless in Ireland with children making up more than a third of the numbers in emergency accommodation. This figure does not include ‘hidden homelessness’, which refers to people living in squats or ‘sofa surfing’, women and children staying in domestic violence refuges and people who sleep rough.

Fórsa lead organiser, Joe O’Connor expressed his gratitude in particular to the union’s branch campaign officers after the rally: “They played an integral role in the success of the day both by stewarding the stage and mobilising Fórsa activists to come out in large numbers.”

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ report on its housing lobbying campaign shows strong support among TDs for radical action to tackle the housing and homelessness crisis.

The lobby campaign focused on TDs in Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and independents in government, and sought their support for the Congress Charter for Housing Rights.

The Charter calls for the declaration of a housing emergency, an end to evictions into homelessness, action of security of tenure and rent certainty and establishing a legal right to housing.

The campaign showed the strongest support for the measures outlined in the Charter amongst Fianna Fáil TDs, with the overwhelming majority of the parliamentary party stating they were ‘very supportive’ or ‘broadly supportive’.

There was also support among Fine Gael TDs and some independents for some of the measures. The lobby campaign took place between February and June this year.

Congress President Sheila Nunan said the results of the lobby campaign “showed clear support for a significant and radical change in policy on housing, to tackle the emergency.

“We're told the land is there and the resources can be found. It now seems clear that the political appetite for a change of direction is also there,” Ms Nunan said.

The report is available to download here.

Assistant General Secretary (Dublin)

Fórsa is seeking an assistant general secretary who will be headquartered in our Dublin office. This senior post involves the provision of a wide range of trade union services to Fórsa branches and members. The contract will be offered on a permanent basis subject to a probationary period. The initial assignment will be to provide services to our members in the Civil Service division of the union.

Responsibilities will include union recruitment and organisation as well as negotiations with employers on all matters relating to members’ pay and working conditions.

Applicants should have detailed knowledge and experience of employment law and industrial relations practice, considerable experience of negotiations and of representing groups and individuals, and a demonstrable commitment to trade unionism and social justice. They should also have excellent organisational, communications and team-working skills, be self-starters, IT literate and hold a valid full driving licence. The salary payable reflects the senior nature of this post.

If you think you have the experience, skills, drive and energy for this demanding role please apply with a full CV setting out how your experience and skills meet the requirements of the job to:

The Senior General Secretary, Fórsa, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1. D01R2C5

To be received by midday on Friday 26th October 2018.

Further information in relation to the duties and requirements of this post is available here.

Fórsa is an equal opportunities employer.

Fórsa has called for equality impact assessments on changes to welfare and benefit payments, as an upcoming Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report found budgetary decisions in the past 10 years have had a disproportionate impact on women with children compared to their male equivalents.

Fórsa official and equality officer Andy Pike said the report’s findings demonstrated a need for equality impact assessments when making changes to benefit and welfare schemes.

“We welcome the report’s authors calling for gender impact assessments on tax-benefit policy changes. However, such assessments must be conducted before changes are implemented and should not be limited to gender, and also examine impacts on other groupings such as people with disabilities,” he said.

Andy said Fórsa has a particular interest in seeking equality impact assessments as 75% of the union’s membership are women. He added that seeking the introduction of impact assessments was a central part of Fórsa’s wider equality policy.

The ESRI report, which will be published at the end of this month, examines the gender impact of tax-benefit policy in Ireland over the past 10 years. It says within couples with children, women had less disposable income than men, particularly where incomes were not shared.

It also found that changes to welfare and benefit payments and schemes didn’t have a major gender impact on single men or women without children or couples without children.

You can find more information some of the reports findings here. The report will be published on the ESRI website at the end of Ocotber.

The launch of the Fórsa Women’s Activist Network will take place on Saturday 3rd November at 11am in our Nerney's Court Office.

This national meeting is the first of a series of new Equality Networks to be established by the Equality Committee over the coming months.

The meeting will be opened by ICTU General Secretary Patricia King and will feature speakers on the gender pay gap, access to flexible working schemes, the role of women within Fórsa and other topics of interest to activists across the union.

Places are available to members on a first come first served basis, lunch will be provided. To book a place, please send an email to this address with 'Fórsa Women’s Activist Network' in the subject heading.  

A full programme will be published shortly and made available via a special news bulletin.

Fórsa Insights is a series of events, talks, film screenings and performances that allows us to explore a range of issues connected to the work of the union and its members. This podcast looks at Lisa Walsh’s play Love In The Wild performed by Anto Seery. Lisa is a social worker and Fórsa member.

In September we hosted a performance of the play at our head office in Nerney’s Court, Dublin. This was followed by a public interview with Lisa and Anto as part of the Fórsa Insights series.

The podcast features some strong language, listener discretion is advised.

Fórsa has submitted its returns to the Lobby Register covering the period from 1st May to 31st August 2018. This brings the union's total number of returns for 2018 to 24.

Lobbying organisations are required to publish their returns no later than 21 days after the end of the relevant reporting period. 

Fórsa submitted 11 returns for the most recent reporting period. The deadline for submissions for this period expired on 21st September.

The latest lobbying returns submitted by Fórsa cover the following matters:

• Public Service Superannuation (Age of Retirement) Bill 2018
• Request for parliamentary question in relation to the TCA scheme in the social welfare services office, Sligo
• Library strategy
• Follow up letter seeking a meeting with Minister in relation to the implications of the Grenfell fire
• Seeking political party support for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Charter for Housing rights
• ONE Cork housing policy - Housing our communities
• Seeking appropriate and continued funding and financing of youth work services 
• Restoration of tax relief on union subscriptions
• Seeking the restoration of tax relief on trade union subscriptions
• Funding higher education
• New entrants to the public service pay scale addressed in the upcoming budget for 2019 

The Regulation of Lobbying Act was signed into law in 2015. Failure to submit a return of lobbying activities carried out during the period by the deadline is a contravention of the Regulation of Lobbying Act.

Enforcement provisions under the act came into effect last year, giving the Standards in Public Office Commission the authority to investigate and prosecute contraventions of the Act and to levy fixed payment notices for late filing of lobbying returns.

Fórsa members who undertake lobbying activity are not required to make a return unless they are lobbying under instruction from the union, such as in the event of a ‘grassroots’ campaign. 

All lobbying activity undertaken by Fórsa staff is reportable, apart from activity classified as ‘excepted communications’ under the legislation.

For more details about the legislation and the register, visit lobbying.ie.

See also: Fórsa trade union profile page on Lobbying.ie.

As Fórsa’s social media presence continues to grow we’ve embraced the visual playground of Instagram.

Instagram has become increasingly popular, communicating to audiences using a creative combination of pictures, videos and text, and this year eclipsed Twitter in the rankings of social media popularity.

While its parent company (Facebook) continues to dominate, recent controversies have led to a migration of younger audiences away from the blue giant.

We hope to reach a new and wider audience on Instagram, and that our presence there will be attractive to Fórsa members looking to get involved and engage with the union.

To follow the Fórsa Instagram story, and keep up to date with all the latest union news and updates, click here.