Paid-up Fórsa members working in the civil and public service, and in non-commercial State agencies, will receive details of the voting arrangements in a ballot for a proposed new public service agreement next week.

If accepted, the proposed new public service agreement, Building Momentum, would run from January 2021 to December 2022. It allows for two pay increases, each worth 1% of annual salary or €500 a year, whichever is the greater.

Fórsa, which represents several thousand aviation workers, has welcomed the recent development that protects low paid workers in the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) from further salary reductions. The aviation sector has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic and has experienced major financial losses, which resulted in various employers in the sector seeking job and salary reductions.

Some non-commercial state agency employers are flouting official Government restrictions on workplace attendance under level five of Covid restrictions, according to Fórsa. In a public statement this week, the union said the national effort to bring the coronavirus under control could be undermined by widespread management failure to properly identify which workers need to attend their work premises to undertake essential functions.

Civil and public servants whose working time was increased under the 2013 Haddington Road agreement (HRA) will see a reduction in their hours next year if the proposed new public service agreement is accepted in ballots of union members.