The union has reached a draft agreement with local government employers on confined promotion competitions in local authorities. It intends to put the outcome to a ballot once the final details have been worked out.

The proposal, which was brokered in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), would see 20% of promotion posts confined to the specific local authority where the vacancy arises. Another 30% would be filled by open competition, while 50% would be filled through competitions confined to the national local government sector.

The WRC talks followed an industrial action ballot of Fórsa members after the local government employers’ body said it intended to scrap the ‘common recruitment pool,’ which currently governs promotion competitions in the sector. Instead, it wanted all promotion posts filled by open competition.

The proposal applies to competitions for grade IV, V, VI, and VII vacancies. The current arrangement is that half the posts are filled by open competition, and the other half through the common recruitment pool.

Fórsa’s head of local government, Peter Nolan, said the outcome was “ground-breaking” and a significant improvement on existing arrangements.

“The proposals are a massive improvement on the employers’ opening position, and the creation of a sectoral category for local authority employees will enhance members’ opportunities to develop a career in local government,” he said.

The union is now engaged in talks on details including regional assemblies, the sequencing of competitions, and issues around posts that require specific technical or other qualifications.

Ten national political parties, who between them fielded over 1,000 candidates in last week’s local elections, have signed up to a trade union pledge to increase local authority funding and restore local council powers in areas like housing, water and environmental protection.

The figure rises to over 1,100 when independents, and individual signatories whose national party didn’t back the pledge, are included.

The ‘Local Power Pledge’ was endorsed at national level by Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, the Green Party, People Before Profit, Solidarity, Independents 4 Change, Aontú and the Workers Party. Almost 300 (290) candidates also signed the pledge individually, including 15 Fine Gael candidates and 52 Independents.

The pledge is part of the ‘More Power To You’ campaign for enhanced local democracy and community services, which was launched by Fórsa, Siptu and Connect in March. Between them, the three unions represent over 30,000 local council workers.

The unions called for substantially increased revenue and funding powers for local authorities after they published research that shows Irish councils have less autonomy from central government than their counterparts in 39 European countries. Their ‘More Power To You’ campaign also calls for legislative changes to facilitate directly-elected mayors and restore and expand town councils, which were abolished in 2014.

Fórsa Director of Campaigns Joe O’Connor, who has coordinated the campaign, said the overwhelming response demonstrated a hunger for stronger local democracy among citizens and their elected representatives.

“The fact that only 8% of Irish public spending occurs at local government level, compared to an EU23 average of over 23%, is compounding shortcomings in services as diverse as housing, water, waste and sustainable domestic energy use,” he said.

Prior to launching the campaign in March, the unions commissioned research from Dr Mary Murphy of Maynooth University. It found that Irish local authorities perform fewer functions than municipalities across Europe.

Her report, Democracy Works If You Let It, said Irish local democracy had been eroded by austerity-era budget cuts and staff reductions; the centralisation of services like water, driving licences and higher education grants; the privatisation of services like refuse collection and housing; and excessive executive direction and new management processes that have increased bureaucratic powers at the expense of political representatives.

Three of the national parties that signed the pledge did so with slight caveats. Fianna Fáil does not support the reintroduction of public provision of domestic waste services. The Workers’ Party and Solidarity do not support directly-elected mayors.

Read more about the More Power To You campaign HERE.

The standard domestic subsistence ‘day rates’ paid to civil servants who are out of the office on business are to increase by 10% from July. But overnight rates will remain the same.

Once the changes are officially sanctioned in the civil service, they will be rolled out to health, local authorities, education and other parts of the public sector.

The ‘five hour rate’ is to increase from €14.01 to €15.41, while the ‘ten-hour rate’ goes up from €33.61 to €36.97.

The changes come on foot of a regular union-management review of the rates, which takes account of inflation in cafes, restaurants, takeaways and fast food outlets, plus – for the overnight rate only – accommodation costs.

No increase is sanctioned if the relevant consumer price index-measured increases come in below 5%. This accounts for the lack of movement on overnight rates because inflation in accommodation costs – which make up the lion’s share of the calculation – were relatively low.

Fórsa official Billy Hannigan, who represents the union in the process, said he would now ask management to prepare a draft agreed report for adoption by the civil service general council. This will give effect to the increases, which will then be applied across the public service.

The Dublin fire brigade ambulance control service in Tara Street is to remain in place on foot of an agreement brokered in talks chaired by former Labour Court chairman Kevin Duffy.

The breakthrough provides for protocols between Dublin fire brigade and the HSE national ambulance service, which will govern ambulance control in the capital.

The number of civil and public servants reached 330,500 in 2018. This is above the previous peak of recent times, which was reached in 2009.

The biggest number (118,000) were employed in the health services, followed by education (107,000). There were 38,000 civil servants, 28,000 local authority employees and 13,700 working in non-commercial semi-state organisations.

The figures are set out in the Public Service Performance Report, 2018, which was published earlier this month.

The report also shows gross current expenditure of €57 billion, plus €6 billion of capital expenditure last year.

An impressive list of public service outputs included 930,000 students in primary and post-primary education, 1.5 million people accessing health professional or community health services, and 333,000 benefit payments and over 600,000 pension payments each week.

President Michael D Higgins signed the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 into law last week.

The new legislation increases unpaid parental leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks. It will be implemented on a phased basis, with an extra four weeks in the first year and the second four weeks in year two.

The qualifying age of children has also been extended from eight to 12.

Parents who have already taken some or all of the current 18 weeks’ leave and who have children up to 12 years of age are permitted to take the extra eight weeks.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is set to launch a new policy document entitled “Realising the Transformative Effect of Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining in Ireland” at its all island Congress this July.

Speaking last week at the ETUC’s (European Trade Union Confederation) 14^th Congress in Vienna, Austria, ICTU official Owen Reidy said Congress is seeking to address Ireland’s collective bargaining deficit, one of its key proposals is to promote the idea of an EU Directive on Collective Bargaining.

“There is one fundamental issue that unites and binds all of us together is the universal right for working women and men to have the right to free collective bargaining in their work. Yet today in Ireland, all workers do not have this fundamental right.

“All the independent evidence shows that not only is collective bargaining good for workers in respect of their pay and conditions, but - it also boosts productivity, it improves efficiency, it improves workers wellbeing and it makes our societies and economies that bit more equal.

“You cannot truly have decent work without the right to collective bargaining,” he said.

He outlined the voluntary nature of industrial relations in Ireland to delegates and said: “Trade union density and collective bargaining coverage is in decline. We have to ask who does this model serve?”

Mr Reidy said it is in the interests of all European unions that workers right across the continent enjoy decent work, decent pay. “Without a right to collective bargaining, this cannot be achieved,” he said. He asked the assembled unions in Vienna to support and endorse the work of the ETUC to promote collective bargaining right across the EU.

The ETUC is the voice of workers and represents 45 million members from 90 trade union organisations in 38 European countries, plus 10 European Trade Union Federations.

The ETUC aims to ensure that the EU is not just a single market for goods and services, but is also a social Europe, where improving the wellbeing of workers and their families is an equally important priority.

You can read the full text of Owen Reidy’s speech to the European Congress HERE.

The Retired Members Group attended the recent conferences in Kilkenny and Sligo and we were very encouraged by the responses we received from delegates.

We distributed a substantial number of application forms and information packs.

All the information shared at the conferences is located on our dedicated page at forsa.ie.

The Retired Members Group will be in further contact with branches in the near future to keep members informed.

Former Irish Congress of Trade Unions official, Esther Lynch has been elected Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Esther was elected to the top job last week by delegates at the 14th ETUC Congress in in Vienna, Austria. Voting delegates included general secretaries and presidents of some 90 national trade union organisations from 38 European countries.

The ETUC is the voice of workers and represents 45 million members from 90 trade union organisations in 38 European countries, plus 10 European Trade Union Federations.

Esther was ICTU’s Legislation and Social Affairs Officer between 1993 and 2015, before moving to the ETUC to take up the post of Confederal Secretary following her election at the 2015 Paris Congress.

Esther worked closely with one of Fórsa’s forerunner unions, IMPACT, on the development of protected disclosure (‘whistleblowers’) legislation and secured an advisory role for trade unions in the development of the Register of Lobbyists.

ICTU General Secretary, Patricia King, warmly welcomed Esther’s appointment to the four year Brussels-based post, and congratulated her personally after the vote.
Patricia said: “I was delighted to be among the first to offer my congratulations, and those of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, to Esther on her well-deserved appointment.

“The level of support that her candidacy received reflects the very high regard in which she is held across Europe.
“Esther was a superb choice with long experience of what the job involves. This is a great result for the 45 million workers who are members of ETUC-affiliated trade unions.”

Fórsa also extended congratulations to Esther on behalf of the union.

The ETUC aims to ensure that the EU is not just a single market for goods and services, but is also a social Europe, where improving the wellbeing of workers and their families is an equally important priority.

Fórsa was among the unions that backed the ‘School Strike for Climate’ demonstration in Dublin last Friday (May 24th). It was the second national protest led by secondary school students calling on the Government to take action to address the climate crisis.

The protest was one of hundreds staged by young people across Europe on the same day.

Merrion Square in Dublin hosted the largest protest, which was attended by around 3,000 people, and was supported by a number of civil society bodies.

Among the Fórsa representatives attending the march were members of the union’s new just transition network, which held its first meeting prior to the demonstration.

Discussions at the just transition network meeting focussed on the development of a climate change strategy for Fórsa, how to inform members about the union’s work on climate change and encouraging greener workplaces.

Protests took place around the country, with the second-largest outside Cork City Hall. A number of schools also held smaller events in solidarity with a global day of action led by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

See related HERE.