Fórsa and other unions will expect an effective response to increased living costs when negotiations on a successor to the current public service pay agreement get underway next summer, according to the union’s general secretary Kevin Callinan.
Fórsa and other unions will expect an effective response to increased living costs when negotiations on a successor to the current public service pay agreement get underway next summer, according to the union’s general secretary Kevin Callinan.
He was speaking at this week’s Fórsa consultative council just two days before new figures showed annual inflation at a 14-year high of 5.1%. The biggest factors behind the fastest price acceleration since 2007 were hikes in electricity and other energy costs, as well as transport and rent.
Kevin told the consultative council that, “for the first time in many, many years,” Ireland was witnessing the return of inflation. Politicians and economists believe this is a temporary phenomenon, linked to economic reopening and energy shortages.
“I’m not entirely convinced, and an effective response is needed. “There can be no question that ordinary workers are feeling the increases in their pockets,” said Kevin.
He also pointed out that cumulative inflation of around 6% had occurred during the post-crash years when public service pay bargaining was mostly concerned with restoring wages lost through pay cuts between 2009 and 2011.
Last month, Kevin told the annual conference of defence forces association Pdforra that maintaining living standards against a background of rising living costs would be the priority in future pay negotiations.
“If the return of inflation is sustained over time there will certainly be a renewed focus on the cost of living when negotiations on a new public service deal get underway,” he said
He pointed out that the daily costs borne by workers, particularly the lower paid, are not fully reflected in the Consumer Price Index, which is the standard measure of inflation. “I speak here of rent or mortgage payments, childcare costs, and fuel prices that are set to further rocket. These necessities form very large elements of weekly outgoings for lower and middle income families, regardless of what sector they work in,” he said.
The current two-year public service pay agreement is untypically short, and expires in December 2022. Talks on its successor are expected to get underway in early summer 2021.
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The minister approved the extension of the booster programme to healthcare workers on foot of a recommendation from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) last week.
Fórsa official Chris Cully welcomed the news. “We’re heading into the critical winter period, when additional pressure is usually placed on our healthcare system, and while Covid infection numbers remain stubbornly high.
“Access to a booster vaccine will help to protect staff while providing them with additional peace of mind when they enter the workplace,” she said.
The minister tweeted: “Niac has advised that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can be used regardless of the initial vaccine course (mRNA or adenoviral vaccine). There is evidence of waning immunity over time of increased risk of breakthrough infection, most of which is mild.”
Unions demanded that health workers would be offered the opportunity to get booster vaccines because, despite the high level of vaccination, breakthrough infection is occurring. This has led to a surge in absences among healthcare workers and the cancellation of hundreds of planned medical procedures.
Fórsa, the INMO, SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) are to a lodge a pay claim for thousands of workers employed in the voluntary and community sector.
Fórsa, the INMO, SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) are to a lodge a pay claim for thousands of workers employed in the voluntary and community sector. The unions are also seeking to establish an appropriate collective bargaining forum for the sector where pay, terms and funding can be properly established.
The unions say the pay claim, set at 3%, would bring tens of thousands of workers in the community and voluntary sector in line with pay patterns across all sectors, including the pay provisions in the Building Momentum public service agreement.
Community and voluntary sector staff provide a huge range of community-based services in health, including care for older people and people with disabilities, services for people with addiction, homeless services and a range of services to children, as well as community development, local employment services, jobs clubs, homework clubs and family resource centres, providing services for “everyone from nought to a hundred years of age.”
The unions launched a joint campaign on Tuesday (9th November) Valuing Care/Recognising Work, which aims to find “a fair way forward” for workers in the community and voluntary sector.
They confirmed that the vast majority of workers providing these services have not had any pay improvements since the collapse of social partnership in 2009, and the subsequent decoupling of the sector from pay provisions included in public sector pay agreements.
Speaking at the launch, community development worker Roisin Ryder said staff did complex and skilled work.
“We need to attract skilled and talented people but there’s no pension or competitive pay scale. There’s been an exodus from the community sector to the HSE, and why wouldn’t they? They can get better pay and a pension elsewhere,” she said.
Fórsa assistant general secretary Catherine Keogh said that if political leaders are serious about valuing workers, and about providing care and services where they are needed most, they must fund them properly.
“We need to stop the annual cycle where unions are forced to agitate to ensure the appropriate funding is in place to ensure these services are maintained. Employers in the sector are witnessing a flight of workers - up to a third of their staff each year - which has the knock-on effect of creating additional recruitment costs. The loss of experienced staff has an immeasurable negative impact on the continuity of care they provide,” she said.
Workers in the sector say that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a substantial increase in demand for services provided by the sector, but no increase in the annual grant funding available to organisations that provide services. For example, addiction services have witnessed a huge increase in referrals, but are working with the same level of resources available prior to the onset of the pandemic.
The unions also issued a joint letter to the Taoiseach, which said that while the Government is the principal funder of the sector, it has consistently denied any responsibility for the terms and conditions of employment which exist within it.
“The adoption of this position by successive administrations has led directly to a highly dysfunctional industrial relations environment where recommendations by the Labour Court and other employment law bodies remain unimplemented because the relevant government department will not fund the employer to comply with same.”
Union leaders have sought a meeting with the Taoiseach on the issues raised by the campaign. They added: "The only viable and sustainable industrial relations solution to this claim, and the further multitude of industrial relations issues which bedevil the sector, is through the creation of a collective bargaining platform whereby terms and conditions of employment can be addressed and resolved.”
The contribution of public sector workers during the pandemic has boosted trust in public services over the last 18 months, according to HSE chief executive Paul Reid.
The contribution of public sector workers during the pandemic has boosted trust in public services over the last 18 months, according to HSE chief executive Paul Reid. Speaking on ‘quality public services’ at the union’s enhanced consultative conference earlier this week, Mr Reid thanked Fórsa members and said the public’s increasing sense of trust was due to the fast-paced and action-oriented response of the public service.
“I’ve never seen so much change, implemented so quickly and at such a pace, for so many, for such public benefit as I’ve seen in the past 20 months.”
Pointing to a recent Universum survey on the sectors where people want to work, Reid said there had been a transformation, with workers in many professions now rating public services as the place they want to work and have a career.
“Some of our public services, including the health services, have topped leading social media and tech giants as the more attractive employer. That reflects the public’s trust and appreciation in the public services,” said Paul.
“There’s no doubt that, at the start of the pandemic, many members of the public and staff were quite scared of what we were heading into. And it was quite clear that where the public had to put their trust. It became obvious very quickly that this was going to be about the State’s response,” he said.
He said equality of access to health and other public services remains the priority.
“This was demonstrated through two of the most fundamental ways we protected people through Covid – the local testing and tracing regime and vaccination pop-up centres throughout the country. You weren’t prioritised if you had private care. It was all provided on an equal access basis.
"And that’s clearly what our State services should be about,” he said.
Mary Murphy, who leads the sociology department at Maynooth university, advocated for a stronger role for local government in the delivery of services.
“The future is public, but it should also be local. Local public services best enable those services to meet what our needs are. They best allow themselves to be inputted by democratic either local participative or representative government.”
Mary’s worked with Fórsa on the ‘More Power To You’ campaign for enhanced local services and democracy. Her research confirmed that Ireland’s local government system is one of the weakest in Europe.
“Through the local government power index we find that Ireland is really weak on important indicators such the degree to which the local government can write its own laws, raise its own money, make its own policies, and implement its own budget.
“At present, only 9% of government funding goes out to local government in Ireland. The average in a European context is a quarter of government funding being implemented through local government structures,” she said.
Citing some of the best practices across Europe, she said over 65% of Danish government spending went through local government structures.
Daria Cibrario of the trade union federation Public Services International (PSI) echoed concerns around equitable access to quality local public services.
“When we don’t have equal access to water and sanitation, decent housing to go into lockdown safely, quality care health and nursing services, people die and will continue to die. This has been brutally exposed by the pandemic,” she said.
Daria also pointed to the systematic underfunding of local public services, and the role it played in widening the pre-existing inequalities in our societies, and the critical need to tackle it for the fair advancement of public services.
You can watch back the panel’s contributions on ‘quality public services’ by following this link.
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Fórsa and other unions have welcomed the publication of the Government’s ambitious climate action plan.
Fórsa and other unions have welcomed the publication of the Government’s ambitious climate action plan. But they stressed the need for strong action to ensure its implementation, and called for social dialogue and protection for workers and communities impacted by the move to a carbon-free economy.
The long-anticipated action plan, which was launched last week, outlines 475 actions aimed at halving Ireland’s greenhouse emissions by 2030.
This is to be underpinned by incentives aimed at massively expanding the use of offshore wind and other renewables, retrofitting 500,000 homes to improve energy efficiency, and putting a million electric vehicles on our roads.
The plan says the public sector will lead by example. It will be expected to cut emissions by 51% before 2030, mandate public sector employers to move to 20% remote working, triple the length of electrified rail by 2030, and replace all buses with electric vehicles by 2035.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) described the climate action plan as a “positive initial step,” but said it would be judged on its capacity to deliver a genuine just transition across all sectors of the economy and society. The action plan includes a commitment to establish a national just transition commission, and to social dialogue and consultation on climate action policy.
The principle of a ‘just transition’ is usually defined as meaning that a healthy economy and clean environment can co-exist, and that this should be achieved fairly without damage to the health, environment, or livelihoods of workers or communities.
Congress official Macdara Doyle said the sectoral emission targets set out in the plan should be matched by an analysis of their impact on jobs in each sector, and that measures should be put in place to deal with the employment impact.
“The 2021 Climate Act requires that employment impact is taken into account in this process, which must deliver not only on climate policy objectives but also avail of the opportunity to enhance living standards, create decent work, and build more sustainable communities,” he said.
The action plan aims to increase the proportion of renewable electricity to 80% by 2030, and envisages €9.5 billion in extra carbon taxes. It says this additional carbon tax take will be earmarked for targeted social protection measures, agri-environment projects, and retrofitting for low-income homes.
The retrofitting programme will include the nation’s 12,500 public buildings, which account for about half of public service greenhouse gas emissions.
The Office of Government Procurement is also to update procurement advice to public bodies, including to promote locally-sourced food and electric vehicles. You can read the ICTU just transition briefing HERE.
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Fórsa is to continue talks with the HSE on the issue of career progression for social workers following discussions last week to pause existing appointments to senior practitioner grade, under the HSCP career pathway process.
The union sought the pause, and further talks, because Fórsa believes the appropriate grade to which social workers should be converted, following five years’ validated competent service, is team leader or senior social worker (medical).
The union had been made aware that local management in some CHOs have been proceeding to appoint or upgrade social workers to the grade of senior practitioner, which Fórsa has not agreed to.
“Fórsa’s position on the appropriate grade is quite clear, and we have asked the HSE to inform all CHOs to pause any conversions underway, and to further advise them that the grade issue is still under discussion and not yet agreed,” she said.
Chris added that HSE management agreed last week to pause the social work grade progression pending further discussion and agreement with Fórsa, and to inform all CHOs of this. She has further advised affected social worker members not to sign contracts.
“I’m aware that a lot of members have approached the union seeking advice on this. Fórsa is determined to achieve a better outcome for our social worker members, and we remain focused on this, and we’ll continue to keep members appraised of progress,” she said.
Representing over 30,000 health workers including health and social care professionals, clerical, administrative, management and technical staff.
We consider it one of the many strengths of the union that our members are central to the delivery the full array of health and welfare services in Ireland. To find out more about the range of grades represented, and where they operate within those services, visit our map “At the heart of Health and Welfare.”
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Fórsa and management at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda have drafted proposals designed to resolve a dispute at the hospital over post upgrades and promotions that have taken place outside of agreed processes.
Fórsa and management at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda have drafted proposals designed to resolve a dispute at the hospital over post upgrades and promotions that have taken place outside of agreed processes.
Fórsa members at the hospital held a lunchtime protest about the ongoing dispute last Friday (5th November). Issues with the recruitment process emerged earlier this year, and Fórsa made representations to both Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and RCSI senior management.
However, the branch said that post upgrades and promotions continued "outside of fair, clear and transparent procedures," and Fórsa sought the assistance of the WRC (Workplace Relations Commission) in on the issue.
Fórsa official Lynn Coffey said an extensive engagement with hospital management on Wednesday (10th November) produced a set of proposals which, if agreed and implemented, would help to resolve the dispute.
Lynn added: “Wednesday’s meeting was productive, with real engagement on both sides. We’re awaiting a final copy of the proposals discussed, which would allow any upgrades and promotions to take place under a clear, fair and transparent process, and we hope that the matter can be brought to a swift conclusion” she said.
Public service staffing has not nearly kept pace with the rising population in the Republic since 2008, according to Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan.
Public service staffing has not nearly kept pace with the rising population in the Republic since 2008, according to Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan. Speaking at a panel session on ‘State priorities and resources’ at the union’s enhanced consultative conference earlier this week, he said this underpinned the need for increased investment to maintain quality public services, which are also under increasing strain from demographic changes.
Kevin said an analysis of Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures showed a 14.4% population increase between 2008 and 2021.
But official figures show that the number of civil and public servants only grew by about half that rate – 7.7% – in the same 12-year period. Over five million people now live in the Republic and rely on its public services.
“Contrary to the narrative presented by some politicians, the public sector workforce has not been close to keeping pace with population growth, let alone the additional pressures that an ageing population places on health and care services,” he said.
Kevin said that, while workers and citizens were made pay for the 2008 financial crisis, the recent pandemic saw a different approach in Ireland and the EU, which relaxed its fiscal rules until 2022.
But despite talk of ‘building back better' after the pandemic, many at the top of Government and the civil service remained captured by the economic orthodoxy of austerity. “A reset is required, with strong political direction to allow the State to play its vital roles to ensure that we really do emerge from the pandemic with better jobs, better lives and a better planet,” said Kevin.
Speaking from the French Economic Observatory in Paris, senior economist Catherine Mathieu said the EU should re-write its fiscal rules to allow individual countries run their fiscal policies and deficits in line with national needs, so long as a common approach to inflation targets was maintained.
She said the European debate was well underway in advance of next year, with some arguing for a return to pre-Covid rules. But she cautioned that, even though many EU states were carrying high Covid-induced debt, we should be “very slow” to bring it down.
Catherine added that EU climate action commitments required significant public investment of at least 2% of GDP each year. “We need rules that allow this investment,” she said.
Rob Sweeney of TASC, Ireland’s think tank for action on social change, said the Irish Government was planning to reduce the size of the State, with continued debt reduction premised on strong economic growth.
He said the coalition planned to balance State income and spending by the middle of this decade even though low interest rates made this “a very benign time to borrow money.” Although there was fiscal capacity for an expansion of public services and investment relative to the rest of the economy, this was not currently planned by the Government.
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Travel insurance policies taken out on or after 1st September 2021 include medical and repatriation costs in the event you fall ill with Covid-19 whilst overseas, and cancellation if you test positive for Covid-19 within 14 days of the departure date of your trip.
This cover is valid provided the Department of Foreign Affairs has not issued advice to avoid non-essential travel or advised do not travel to your destination or any country/area you are travelling through prior to the commencement of your trip. There is no cover under any other section for claims relating to Covid-19.
The Irish Hospice Foundation has launched a new guide on dealing with grief in the workplace, and providing support for employees, particularly in cases of suicide. The guide is designed specifically with employers and union representatives in mind.
It aims to help organisations increase their understanding and confidence in responding to suicide in the workplace by providing practical, sensible and sensitive guidelines to support colleagues who are grieving.
Breffni Mc Guinness, National Bereavement Development Specialist with Irish Hospice Foundation, played a key role in the development of the guide.
“Providing appropriate support to staff who are bereaved is a key element of staff wellbeing, especially when the loss involves suicide. Helping managers and staff to respond with humanity, compassion and competence are key steps, as is having an appropriate bereavement policy. ‘Grief in the Workplace: Responding to Suicide’ provides practical guidance for workplaces on how these steps can be achieved,” he said.
The resource was developed in partnership with the Irish Hospice Foundation, the HSE National Office of Suicide Prevention, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and employers’ body Ibec. It covers:
• Support for workers bereaved by suicide in their personal lives.
• Responding when an employee, contractor or member of the public dies by suicide on or off site.
• Developing a bereavement policy to deal with suicide in the workplace.
A list of useful contact details and guidelines for responding to suicide in the workplace are also provided in the appendices.
Speaking at the launch, ICTU equality officer David Joyce said: “None of us wish to have to deal with the topic of suicide-related to our workplaces but this guide provides us with the tools to deal with it in a sensitive and practical manner.
“Congress is pleased to be a partner in this work and will circulate widely among our networks so that trade unions can play an informed and supportive role in ensuring workplaces are equipped with the skills and knowledge to respond to suicide.”
Best practice suggests that when employers or those in responsibility handle these situations well, there is a positive impact on other employees’ reactions to the loss and the resulting long term effect it may have on them.
The Central Statistics Office says between 400-500 people die by suicide every year. There are few families, communities or workplaces that have not been touched by suicide, either directly or indirectly.
The full guide ‘Grief in the Workplace: Responding to Suicide’ is available to view and download here.
It’s never been more important – or easier – to get the protections and benefits of union membership. Join Fórsa HERE or contact us HERE.
The Fórsa Skills Academy is inviting members to sign up for its 2022 workplace representative training programme, which covers a range of topics including organising, communications, equality and diversity, representing individuals and meeting with management.
You can apply HERE and the closing date for expressions of interest is 5.00pm on Tuesday 30th November 2021.
The course is being offered to all workplace representatives who have completed the recent Fórsa 101 training. A detailed overview has already been circulated to the union’s branch executive committees.
Contact Judith Coffey on 021-425-5221 or skillsacademy@forsa.ie if you have any questions.
It’s never been more important – or easier – to get the protections and benefits of union membership. Join Fórsa HERE or contact us HERE.
Remote and hybrid work can significantly reduce barriers to work for people with disabilities, but it shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to improving the accessibility of workplaces through practical accommodations, according to a new report from Employers for Change.
Employers for Change is part of the Open Doors Initiative, which provides marginalised groups pathways to work through training, education and employment opportunities.
Its new report on the future of work and disability studied the impact of remote working on disabled people during the Covid-19 pandemic. It found that removing barriers in transport, and allowing for greater flexibility around working hours, greatly improved the working lives and workforce participation for many.
It also said remote working had greatly improved a sense of connectedness among employees with disabilities.
Authored by Maynooth University academic Joan O’Donnell, the report collaborated with several employers and equality experts including ICTU’s equality and development policy officer, David Joyce.
O’Donnell said remote work “does not necessarily offer a solution for inclusion and accessibility in the workplace,” and should not be treated as a simple fix to an extremely complex issue around accessibility improvement.
The report also highlights the importance of involving disabled employees in conversations around company policies and remote working policies that will greatly affect them.
Workers who wish to join Fórsa can to do so using a new ‘join online’ function on the union’s website.
Going live with the new system follows several months of research, preparation and testing aimed at making it easier than ever to join the union. It also goes live as the union continues to process a large number of new membership applications, as interest in joining the union has surged since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.
Fórsa’s general secretary Kevin Callinan commented: “The current crisis has created the necessity to be able to carry out our business in different ways. Work on this project had commenced before the Covid-19 crisis took hold, and its completion marks a vital step as we tackle the challenges of living in changed times.
“We can see that more people want to join a union in response to what’s happening in the wider economy. It’s vital that they can take those initial steps quickly and easily, and making the membership application process more accessible is part of that process.
“This is a crucial new venture to enable Fórsa to substantially increase our membership - and to strengthen the union’s hand - at a critical time in the union’s development,” he said.
The online facility is a streamlined and simplified membership application process, and will be the quickest and easiest way to join the union. All incoming applications will continue to be subject to check-off and approval by Fórsa branches and the national executive committee, while the new online system is designed to ease the administrative burden on branches.
Fórsa is here to protect you if you have problems arising from the coronavirus or other workplace issues. The best way to contact the union at this time is HERE.
We will deal with queries as quickly as we can but, needless to say, the union will prioritise cases where members’ jobs and incomes are at immediate risk – as well as any serious health and safety issues that may arise.
Fórsa has cancelled all face-to-face meetings for the time being. The union is redeploying its staff to prioritise engagement with management on proposals arising from the Covid-19 public health crisis, and to provide rapid and efficient responses to members’ queries and concerns.
Fórsa's main phone line (01 817 1500) is now open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively members can use the Contact Us page on the Fórsa website to submit queries directly to the relevant division within Fórsa and this remains the most efficient way to access advice directly.
Wherever possible, Fórsa staff have been equipped to work remotely. Therefore, members should not attend Fórsa offices at this time. If you have a query or concern, the best way to raise it is to contact the union HERE.
