Fórsa has welcomed minister Josepha Madigan’s support for a review of minimum qualifications for special needs assistants (SNAs), and for accrediting the UCD national SNA training programme.

Fórsa and other public service unions are expecting contact from the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told RTÉ that the Government was prepared to make an improved offer in pay talks.

Additional working time introduced in the public service in 2013 will no longer be worked with effect from next Friday (1st July), when thousands of civil and public servants will see their working time restored to pre-austerity levels.

Fórsa has backed the growing calls for domestic violence leave legislation. The union’s national secretary Ashley Connolly said the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed the need for a better response to victims of domestic violence.

A new academic study has found that working at home is less likely to lead to work intensification in organisations where there’s a recognised trade union. The UCD report also said unions helped tackle increased stress and other health and wellbeing issues associated with remote work.

Union membership is becoming an increasingly female phenomenon, as there are now more women than men in trade unions. That’s according to the latest findings from the UCD Smurfit business school.