This has been a difficult year for Fórsa members in the union’s Services and Enterprises Division, which represents workers in private companies and State agencies.

There was good news for Local Employment Services (LES) providers following the recently completed second round of a tendering process run by the Department of Social Protection.

Unions have won the right for workers to get paid sick leave after new legislation passed through both houses of the Oireachtas earlier this week.

Inflation is likely to average close to 8% over the whole of 2023 before falling gradually to around 4% by the middle of next year. That’s the latest view from the trade union-backed Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI).

Union negotiators have urged all public service unions to join a coordinated campaign, supported by industrial action ballots, for improved pay. 

Revised legislation to implement the Government’s promise to give all workers a right to request remote working won’t be published until the autumn at the earliest.