Fórsa has said its members employed in local employment services (LES) and job clubs are losing confidence in the Department of Social Protection’s ability to manage the services following a further change in the contracts for their provision.

The union’s assistant general secretary Lynn Coffey said the department had extended the contracts of existing providers until August, without consultation.

“This is yet another example of deadlines concerning the operation of these services being unilaterally changed by the department. This reactive, last-minute approach is incredibly unfair to our members, many of whom will lose their jobs as a result of the planned tendering process for the provision of these services,” she said.

LES and job clubs staff are represented by Fórsa and Siptu, who have campaigned against a Government-imposed tendering process that favours for-profit providers over the current community-focussed, not-for-profit service.

The unions say that privatisation, job losses and a diminished employment service are likely as a result of the process.

Lynn said members need to be able to plan for their futures. “They need definitive timelines. At the very least there should be an extension of these contracts until the end of the year. This would allow time for a proper stakeholder process to be established and to agree a way forward for the provision of these vital social services,” she said.

She added: “We have called for a minimum extension of the current contracts until the end of the year in light of the Ukrainian refugee crisis. To continue with the marketisation of these critical services as we enter a very unpredictable economic period goes against all logic.

“The approach of privatising these services has no political support apart from a handful of hard-line ideologues within government. It’s clearly not in the interest of the most vulnerable within our society to have these services cease at this time.

“What the minister should be doing is seeking to implement the nine recommendations from the Report on the Examination of Employment Services in November 2021 published by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands.”