Fórsa has urged the Irish Government to resist a bid to exempt civil servants from strengthened workplace protections.

The union’s general secretary Tom Geraghty wrote last week to employment minister Regina Doherty to say the Government should vote against a Bulgarian proposal to amend a draft EU directive on ‘transparent and predictable working conditions.’

The Bulgarian proposal would exclude civil servants, soldiers, police, judges, prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies from the protections in the directive.

Tom said the proposed change was unacceptable and unnecessary, and was “at variance with International Labour Organisation conventions and case law.

”The Council of Ministers for Social Affairs, Employment and Labour Affairs is expected to consider the proposal and amendment tomorrow (21st June).

The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) says the proposed Bulgarian amendment has prompted some business organisations to call for a broader dilution of the draft directive’s protections to workers across the economy.