Fórsa has cited the Office of the Attorney General for a series of breaches of the outsourcing protections contained in public service agreements. 

Measures in existing agreements, which oblige government departments to engage in consultations if they want to outsource civil service work, will be retained in full if the proposed new national agreement – Building Momentum – is agreed in ballots of union members. Crucially the agreements prevent public service bodies from factoring labour costs into outsourcing decision.

But Fórsa says the Attorney General’s officer has breached these protections, and has taken the case to the oversight body charged with ensuring compliance with the public service deals. The union says the government office is outsourcing legislative drafting, which the union considers to be the core work of the department.

Fórsa official Seán Carabini said that he is never happy to see a public service outsourced, but finds the current situation in the Attorney General’s Office “particularly difficult to swallow” as it concerns the outsourcing of core department work.

The Office of the Attorney General responded, stating that it has outsourced such work in the past, and that outsourcing is necessary to provide essential and urgent drafting services.

“That may well be the case, but all sides are obliged to follow consultation mechanisms before outsourcing occurs. This hasn’t happened, and I first learned about this when I saw the advertisement on the e-tenders website. That, quite simply, is not good enough,” said Seán.

Fórsa has called for the outsourcing decision to be overturned and has asked the oversight body to intervene.

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