New committee eyes Labour Court access
by Mehak Dugal
 
In recent times Fórsa has been critical of the operation of the scheme and, along with other civil service unions and associations, it has campaigned to modernise the industrial relations system.
In recent times Fórsa has been critical of the operation of the scheme and, along with other civil service unions and associations, it has campaigned to modernise the industrial relations system.

A special sub-committee of the civil service General Council is set to be established to help drive the transition to access for civil servants to the State’s industrial relations bodies over the course of 2022.

 

The General Council is the main industrial relations forum for the civil service. It’s made up of senior elected and full-time officials from Fórsa and other unions, as well as senior officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER).

 

The committee meets every month to consider claims from the union or management side and ongoing policy matters that affect the terms and conditions of civil servants.

 

In recent times Fórsa has been critical of the operation of the scheme and, along with other civil service unions and associations, it has campaigned to modernise the industrial relations system and to open up access to the state industrial relations machinery – the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission – to civil servants.

 

At present, the only access currently enjoyed is on rights-based cases.

 

This development has been welcomed by the head of Fórsa’s Civil Service Division, Derek Mullen, who said it would “allow us to focus on the tasks that are necessary to complete the move, in particular the development of a robust internal dispute resolution mechanism.”

 

“We will be also pressing DPER in this process to deal with outstanding legislative amendments to ensure that civil servants are interpreted appropriately as workers under the terms of the 1990 Industrial Relations Act,” he said.

 

The Council is established under the civil service conciliation and arbitration scheme. The IR arrangements have been in place since the early 1950s, when civil servants were excluded from the Labour Court on its establishment in 1946.

 

Separately, the General Council met on Wednesday (24th November) and considered matters including the important issue of ensuring that overtime payments will be received by lower paid grades before Christmas.

 

Arrangements were agreed back in 2017 to ensure payments, and was due to the fact the NSSO payroll shuts down at the end of November for the completion of year-end clear downs of cumulative and shorter working year data, balancing and reconciliation of tax and PRSI to validate P60 and P35 listings among other matters.

 

Also ongoing at sub-committee of General Council is an important review of incremental credit in which Fórsa are seeking to improve general arrangements in the civil service for those with previous service, in line with EU norms and to reflect what is happening in the wider public service.

 

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