The proportion of students wearing masks in schools could be increased through the use of better public health information, Fórsa has said. The union was responding to developments this week as the Government softened its approach in revised guidance published on Monday (6th December).

The original guidance issued to schools last week stated that pupils who failed to comply with the rules, and who did not have a medically-certified exemption, would be sent home from school. The new guidance states that, in implementing the public health measure, “it is not intended that any child will be excluded by the school in the first instance.”

Responding to last week’s announcement that masks were to be made mandatory in primary schools, Fórsa supported the use of face coverings in schools, but said the Government’s rush to implement the practice would make it difficult to achieve.

The union said its school-based members – special needs assistants (SNAs), school secretaries, and caretakers – should not be asked to exclude students for refusing to wear a mask, as this is the responsibility of school principals and senior teachers.

Fórsa’s head of education, Andy Pike, said measures that would improve the situation overall would include the provision of plenty of notice, more detailed public health advice explaining the rationale, the launch of a public information campaign that would encourage and recommend the use of masks for the greater good, and to build momentum through positive peer pressure amongst students.

Andy welcomed the fact that education department guidelines exempt children with special educational needs from the requirement to wear masks if it would cause difficulties with communication, raise anxiety levels, or cause other problems.

“Fórsa supports the use of face masks as an effective way of addressing the transmission of the virus in our schools. But the way in which the education department has implemented the policy is counterproductive, and will make the effective use of face masks much more difficult to achieve. The measure shouldn’t have been implemented overnight with no time to build consensus or explain the requirements to students, parents and staff,” he said.

Andy added that the union continues to request that the HSE reinstates the contact tracing and testing supports that were withdrawn on 27th September.

Full guidance on face masks/coverings in Primary schools can be accessed HERE.

Fórsa hosted up to 800 members at last Saturday’s #RespectForSNAs seminar. The online event focused on minimum educational qualifications for special needs assistants (SNAs), the need for continuing professional development and how best to train and prepare SNAs to support students within a more inclusive education system.

Fórsa’s head of education Andy Pike said the seminar was the largest and most significant national discussion on the education and training needs of SNAs in decades, and reflected overwhelming support for changing the essential SNA qualification and establishing a new accredited framework for continuing professional development.

He outlined the increasing complexity of the SNA role, how it has developed since service was first established in 1979, and how current perception of role is 'outdated'.

“There will be over 18,000 SNAs working in schools from Sept 2023. They are the largest public service group in a single grade with no career development or promotional opportunities.

“They are the only group of front line staff without a realistic entry qualification. The campaign seeks to change the status quo. We will now increase our efforts to secure a Level 6 entry qualification,” he said.

Fórsa SNA rep Linda O’Sullivan told delgates: "As an SNA I know the value of my role and the daily difference I make to the lives of the students I care for and their families. I am entirely aware of the lack of respect towards SNAs and our role and I feel this stems from the gap between the educational requirements to become an SNA and the reality.

“The official belief, that the current level of education is sufficient, is both insulting and misrepresents the educational standard of most SNAs across the country."

The campaign also hosted a briefing for Oireachtas members on Wednesday (8th December), and the #RespectForSNAs hashtag trended strongly on Twitter throughout last Saturday’s seminar, reflecting both the large attendance and engagement with the seminar content.

Fórsa official Shane Lambert spoke on Kildare FM on Monday (6th December) about the seminar. He praised the contributions, in particular those from SNA members: “It only serves to highlight the broad range of skills and abilities they possess,” he said.

You can watch the full seminar HERE or in the panel below.

Over 80% of workers want to work remotely, either some or all of the time, according to a new survey from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Its report, published last week, found that 28% would like to work from home all the time, while 60% would prefer a ‘blended’ approach where they spent some time in the workplace and some time working from home.

The CSO findings echo a growing number of opinion polls, including the large Fórsa survey carried out in 2020. 

The union is currently in talks aimed at agreeing a framework for blended working in the civil service. The intention is that this will provide a template for expanding and managing remote working – including fair access and worker safeguards – across the public service.

The CSO survey found there was an increase in people’s overall ‘social happiness’ due to the ability to work from home. Almost 50% of first-time home buyers said they would be happy to buy outside of Dublin if working from home became permanent.

And 74% said they had more time on their hands because of their ability to work remotely. This has led to more people taking up new hobbies and spending more quality time with their families.

The survey also showed that remote working has had a positive environmental impact, with three-quarters of respondents saying they made fewer car journeys each day when working from home and almost half saying they tended to walk more often.

Fórsa has led the union campaign for increased remote working since the pandemic experience demonstrated that many roles once deemed essentially office-based can be productively performed from home.

The union conducted Ireland’s largest ever employee opinion survey in 2020. It revealed a huge appetite for working from home, with most favouring a hybrid model. Some 86% of respondents said they were interested in working remotely, with 80% saying they favoured a blended work arrangement.

Trade unions have welcomed the announcement of planned new measures, which would see the childcare sector receive increased public funding along with other reforms. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) hailed the package as an important step towards a public universal scheme for early years’ education and care.

The package, outlined by children’s minister Roderic O’Gorman earlier this week, heralds a shift towards publicly-funded and managed services through a partnership between the State and providers.

He said its new funding model would deliver high quality childcare with improved affordability for parents and better pay and conditions for staff. He also claimed it would lead to better management of supply to meet demand.

The plan offers crèches permanent core State funding of over €200 million a year from 2023, provided the fees that parents pay are frozen.

The reforms are on foot of an expert group report, Partnership for the Public Good, which recommends this additional funding stream for the sector to support quality, improved pay and a lower cost to parents.

The new funding model is to be available to voluntary providers, sole traders and for-profit chains that deliver early learning and care or school-age childcare. But the provision of funding hinges on the promise by childcare providers to freeze their fees.

The funding model will also support the establishment of an ‘employment regulation order’ to underpin pay and conditions in the sector. ICTU welcomed this.

“The completion of the joint labour committee for early years’ services will support service providers to meet the higher costs arising from pay increases and from staff participation in training and professional development activities, without raising fees for parents,” it said.

ICTU said the workforce in the sector was “widely recognised as the major factor in determining children’s experiences and their outcomes, but the sector has been characterised by low pay and high turnover.”

Further engagement between ICTU representatives and departmental officials through future meetings of the Early Learning and Childcare Stakeholder Forum and the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF) early years subgroup is expected.

Minister O’Gorman said the expert group report clearly and unequivocally recognised the public good dimension of early learning and care and school-age childcare. “These are crucial services and the State has a strong interest in ensuring they are high quality, affordable, inclusive and sustainable,” he said.

Public service employers have been advised that staff should return to home working unless it is necessary for them to attend the workplace in person. This comes on foot of revised official economy-wide public health advice issued by the Government in the middle of November, before the emergence of the Omicron variant.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER), which issued the new guidelines to public service employers on 26th November, says its latest stance “marks a return to the situation as it applied prior to the phased return to the workplace, which started on 20th September.”

Fórsa met DPER prior to the publication of the new guidelines. The union said that, while most employers were implementing the return to home-working where possible, the approach was not being followed consistently across the civil and public service.

The union’s general secretary, Kevin Callinan, subsequently wrote to public reform minister Michael McGrath to outline Fórsa’s concern over the lack of consistency in the application of the guidance.

“The union’s officials and representatives have observed a number of instances where employers are insisting that staff attend workplaces to perform work that can be effectively performed remotely. This includes, but is not confined to, work that had been performed remotely prior to 20th September and during earlier stages of the pandemic,” he wrote.

The revised DPER guidelines say that an agreed Covid workplace safety protocol must be observed where workplace attendance is necessary. It adds that attendance at work premises “should be for specific business purposes appropriate to each sector and taking into account the updated guidance regarding working from home.”

“How this will work in practice is dependent on the individual circumstances of each workplace/premises, having regard to issues such as physical distancing and other public health measures,” it says.

Fórsa has advised its members to contact the lead worker safety representative in their workplace if they have concerns over Covid safety measures. If this isn’t possible, staff are advised to contact their union representative.

Economy-wide guidance from the Labour-Employer Economic Forum (LEEF) was updated in November to take account revised public health advice. The LEEF is the main national forum for unions, employers and Government to discuss and agree on workplace and other issues.

Read the DPER advice HERE.

Fórsa’s North Dublin/North Leinster SNA branch has taken steps to make information more accessible to people experiencing domestic violence.

The branch has added a dedicated page about available services to the Fórsa website. You can access the page here, or through the main ‘education’ page on the union website here.

The proposal to make the information available was prompted by a number of approaches by individual members to workplace reps, seeking advice and assistance on domestic violence.

Branch representative Linda O’Sullivan explained: “Domestic violence incidences have increased during the pandemic and tend to rise through the Christmas period, so we’ve taken the opportunity to provide the information to anyone who needs it. Our reps and members can easily share the link through social media, a text message or email. We all have a role to play in making it easier for anyone in those circumstances to seek help.”

Linda added that a Fórsa SNA rep told her that making the information easily accessible will help people in difficulty. “She explained that she had once been in that situation herself, and has since helped two of our members get into women’s refuges in the last few months, so it's definitely needed,” she said. 

Information for anyone who may be experiencing domestic violence:

• Women’s Aid: 1800 341 900 National Freephone Helpline 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Stop Domestic Violence in Ireland: 0868697022 / stopdomesticviolenceinireland@gmail.com
• Aobihneas Domestic abuse support for women and children: (01)867 0701

The union that represents Ireland’s shop workers has appealed to the public to respect retail staff over the Christmas period. Fórsa has backed the call, which came after Mandate said it had received worrying reports of increased abuse towards shop workers in recent weeks.

The union, which represents 30,000 workers in the retail sector, is calling for customers to respect essential frontline workers, including those working in shops in what, for them, is the most stressful time of the year.

Mandate general secretary Gerry Light said Christmas was always a difficult time for retail workers, and this had been underlined by the prolonged nature of the Covid-19 pandemic. He said the recent spike in case numbers was exacerbating stress levels this year.

“We are asking customers to have heightened levels of awareness of the difficulties facing shop workers. Abuse is not part of the job and it costs nothing to show respect and support to the workers who have kept our shelves full throughout the pandemic,” he said.

Mandate points out that shop workers have been on the frontline throughout the pandemic, and were the hardest hit cohort during the second and third waves of the virus

“There’s no doubt that they have been impacted heavily by this current wave too. The least they deserve is a bit of patience and respect,” said Mr Light.

Mandate has also renewed its call on employers to adopt a zero-tolerance approach in the application of all health and safety guidelines.

“We have seen videos of customers verbally abusing workers in recent days. Employers must do all they can to support their staff when this happens. They need to ensure that Covid guidelines are adhered to in order to protect the health of their staff and the public principally by ensuring that shop workers are not put in the firing line by requesting customers to wear masks or to social distance,” he said.

Trade unions have played a key role in An Post’s success in achieving a ‘zero’ gender pay gap, according to the company’s chief executive. Last week, the commercial semi-state body reported it had become one of the very few Irish companies to reduce its gender pay gap to 0% - down from the already-low gap of 3.7% two years ago.

Asked by RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme how the company had eliminated the gap, chief executive David McRedmond said: “We’re heavily unionised. Unions are very progressive.” 

McRedmond said the previous low gap was due to pay gap reporting. An Post started publishing its pay gap figures three years ago, and this had contributed to the elimination of the divide, he said.

For the first time since the creation of An Post, its female staff now earn slightly more than the men, on average. A quarter of An Post’s workforce is currently female.

However, the report also shows that men continue to receive higher bonuses than women at the firm. McRedmond said this was because frontline delivery roles, which attract bonuses, were predominately filled by men.

"Last year our delivery frontline did a phenomenal job in the middle of the Covid crisis and, quite rightly, they got good bonuses. That population just happens to be skewed male," he said.

The company is launching a new campaign aimed at recruiting more female postal staff. At present, 87% of employees in this field are male.

The head of Fórsa’s Services and Enterprises Division, Ashley Connolly said it was a momentous achievement for staff at An Post, some 250 of whom are Fórsa members.

“The union has long been campaigning for the introduction of gender pay gap reporting and the reduction of the gap, and what better example to lead by now than the State postal service achieving this?

“It goes to show how effective tools such as unionisation and reporting can be in achieving these essential outcomes, and paves the way for every large corporation in the State to now follow suit,” she said.

Ashley, who also leads for Fórsa on equality issues, repeated the union’s call for legislation to oblige all employers to report on their gender pay gaps, including bonuses.

“Increased transparency is the first step in tackling the issue and reducing the gap,” she said.

Physical access to Fórsa offices will be extremely limited between Thursday 23rd December and Tuesday 4th January, due to Covid restrictions and the holiday period. But our staff will be working remotely on most days.

If you have an urgent query you should phone 01-817-1500 between 9.30am and 4.00pm. The phones are staffed on Christmas Eve and between 29th and 31st December. At other times, you can leave a message and we’ll get back to you.

Alternatively, you can mail your query direct to the appropriate Fórsa division:

• Civil service: civilserviceinfo@forsa.ie
• Education: educationinfo@forsa.ie
• Health and welfare: healthandwelfareinfo@forsa.ie
• Local government: localgovernemntinfo@forsa.ie
• Municipal employees: municipalinfo@forsa.ie
• Services and enterprises: servicesandenterprisesinfo@forsa.ie

Fórsa regional offices will also be closed during the holidays, but the phone lines will be staffed.

In the meantime, you can keep up with important developments on the union's website.

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan and the leader of a 20-million strong European trade union federation have urged Paschal Donohoe and other EU finance ministers to reject a return to austerity fiscal measures.

In a joint letter to the Irish finance minister, Callinan and the general secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), Jan Willem Goudriaan, said it was crucial that EU governments boost public investment to strengthen public services and economies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Minister Donohoe chairs the informal but influential Eurogroup of EU finance ministers from countries that use the Euro, and the union leaders’ letter followed comments made after this week’s Eurogroup meeting.

Callinan and Goudriaan acknowledged concerns about controlling the growth of current expenditure, but said this needed to be “assessed in relation to the measures required to make our public health and care services more resilient and capable of coping with another surge in the pandemic or future crises.”

Some EU member states are keen to roll back on the relaxation of EU fiscal rules put in place during the pandemic. But, in their letter, the union leaders advised against a return to the old approach to fiscal policy.

“A key element of the pandemic response and the creation of resilient public services, particularly health and social care, requires an increase in current spending to tackle understaffing and the undervaluation and low pay of the mainly female health and care workforce. EPSU research indicates that 421,000 workers have left the care sector alone in recent years and urgent action is needed to avert a recruitment and retention crisis,” they wrote.

In a statement issued after its 6th December meeting, the Eurogroup said: “A moderately supportive fiscal stance in the euro area for 2022 is appropriate for the recovery to maintain traction in the near term,W” and “Taking into account the strength of the recovery, but also the recently increased risks associated with the pandemic, Member States should stay agile in their policy response.”

The union leaders also welcomed the European Commission’s planned review of economic governance.

“We would argue strongly that the system requires fundamental change to avoid a return to the kind of austerity measures that undermined the response to the previous crisis and, in some countries, left long-lasting damage to public services. We would also urge the Eurogroup to agree that the general escape clause should be maintained until a new system of economic governance is in place,” they wrote.

Minister Donohoe has chaired the Eurogroup since he was elected as its president in 2020. In an interview after this week’s meeting, he distinguished between the EU’s austerity response to the 2008 banking crisis and its fiscal reaction to the economic impact of Covid.

Mr Donohoe told the Irish Times: “This crisis is completely different. We have used some of the architecture that’s been built up in the European Union of a decade ago, to deal with this crisis really differently. But we also recognise that we were dealing with a disease, and that disease does not lend itself to being defined in economic terms. So it’s a different crisis, different response.”

Callinan and Goudriaan said: “We would strongly agree with the statement about the need to maintain fiscal support for the recovery and to preserve nationally financed investment throughout 2022. We believe it is crucial that national governments have the scope to boost public investment which is not only essential to make up for the below-trend rate of public investment since the last crisis.”

Kevin Callinan is also the President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

Structural changes are needed to increase the ethnic diversity and end racial discrimination in the Irish labour market, according to a new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).

Published earlier this month, it found clear and consistent evidence of disadvantage towards ethnic minorities, particularly among those who are not Irish citizens and are born abroad. The report also surveyed international evidence on the best ways to measure and combat racially-based workplace discrimination, and to promote ethnic diversity in the workplace.

Fórsa official Andy Pike welcomed the research, and said employers should do more to ensure that racial discrimination and racial bias are eliminated from Irish workplaces.

“It’s no surprise that the ERSI found that a range of different measures are needed to combat racial discrimination in the workplace. Racism is often hidden from view, which means it can be difficult to prove that decisions on recruitment or promotion are tainted by racial bias,” he said.

Andy said this placed an undue responsibility on victims of discrimination to prove their case in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) or the courts.

“The ERSI rightly highlights the need to ensure that Irish employers make structural changes like introducing transparent recruitment and promotion procedures and engaging with their management teams on the need for diversity training with the aim of increasing the proportion of the workforce from ethnic minorities and non-white Irish backgrounds,” he said.

The ESRI points to evidence that suggests employers can implement a range of measures to improve diversity in the workplace. It found that voluntary measures, including taking part in diversity training, were more effective than compulsory measures.

It said organisational campaigns had been effective in targeting specific groups like older people, and that a similar approach could help combat racial discrimination.

Read the ESRI report HERE. 

Trade union representatives are putting pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ensure that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics do not contribute to oppression and human rights violations in China.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and similar national federations around the world, is also calling for concrete steps to ensure protection for athletes, support workers, Olympics staff, and others during the competition.

The 2022 games are set to be held in Beijing next February. In a new report, the ITUC says the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly repressive rule sanctions the intimidation of LGBT+ people and the repression and exploitation of ethnic minorities.

In a new petition campaign, the ITUC is demanding that the International Olympic Committee guarantee the security and safety of athletes and all others who are attending the games, and says governments must guarantee the safety of athletes and supporters traveling to the Winter Olympics.

You can support ITUC’s call for protection for all those taking part in the next Winter Olympics by signing the petition here. 

Read ‘China: A gold medal for repression’ HERE.

Technology, climate change, demography, globalisation and changes in social expectations will shape the world of work in the coming years, according to the director general of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

But, speaking at a recent event organised by the Dublin-based Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Guy Ryder said these five ‘mega-drivers’ of change could inform an approach that puts workers at the heart of economic and labour-market policies.

Ryder said the global pandemic had demonstrated the need to marry economic progress with social happiness. Since the arrival of Covid, he said workers – especially younger ones – were less prepared to work in low-paid, long-hour jobs.

He said Covid gave many people time to think and reflect on their own work, and that this had led to mass resignations and labour-market shortages across the globe as workers sought a better work-life balance.

The ILO is a United Nations body that brings together representatives of workers, employers and governments. Mr. Ryder was previously general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

During the session, which was chaired by Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan, Mr Ryder said Covid-19 had caused a crash in labour markets across the world. This was mainly due to the millions of people who were furloughed or let go due to the effects of the pandemic.

The ILO’s research showed that there was still a massive fall in hours worked across the globe in the second quarter of 2020. This recovered in the third quarter and flat-lined in 2021.

Mr Ryder also said the pandemic had worsened the global digital divide, with many workers in better-off countries able to work from home, while others lacked access to internet and other essential infrastructure for new ways of working.

He said women were amongst the primary losers in the pandemic, with around 90% of those who left their jobs across the globe yet to return to the workforce.

With Christmas approaching and shopping lists being ticked off, the book industry has an array of great titles to choose from this year, with the An Post Irish Book Awards 2021 winners providing a comprehensive guide to the best of the best from this year’s bookshop shelves.

Sally Rooney goes from strength to strength, Aisling and the City marks the welcome return of Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen’s eponymous heroine, while Séamas O’Reilly’s poignant and funny memoir continues to delight.

Fintan O’Toole took the Non-Fiction Book of the Year category with his magisterial We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Ireland Since 1958, which comes highly recommended. Charting Ireland’s social, economic and political history across his lifetime, O’Toole reveals an intimate psychological portrait of Ireland since 1958.

My Name Is Philippa

Among other notable books available this year is the memoir of Philippa Ryder. Philippa is a civil servant, a former union representative with IMPACT, and a medal winning cyclist who has represented Ireland in the World Games as part of Sporting Pride.

Philippa is also transgender and has just published her memoir My Name Is Philippa, which documents her transition from male to female, helping to transform Irish culture along the way.

Growing up as a boy in the 1960s seemed wrong to her. Why did she want to dress in her sister’s clothes and later her wife’s? It wasn’t until the 1990s, that he found she wasn’t the only person to do this.

My Name is Philippa is a remarkable and honest memoir, clearly written with humour and grace, offering answers to many of the questions people ask.

She describes the physical as well as the emotional process of transition. Above all, it’s a story about love, understanding and a family who stuck together as Philippa moved from husband and father to wife and mother.

Suir to Jarama

For anyone who added Giles Tremlett’s authoritative The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War to their book collection last year, Liam Cahill’s latest offers an Irish perspective on that conflict, highlighting the crucial role of volunteers from both parts of Ireland in one of the most important battles of the Spanish Civil War, at Jarama, outside Madrid, in February 1937.

From Suir to Jarama looks at the Irish involvement on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War through the life and fate of a young Irish volunteer. The book tells the story of Mossie Quinlan, a member of a prominent political and business family in Waterford, who was an infantry soldier in the British Battalion of the 15th International Brigade and who fought and died at Jarama. A sniper shot him while he was rescuing a wounded comrade.

Workers who wish to join Fórsa can to do so using a new ‘join online’ function on the union’s website.

Going live with the new system follows several months of research, preparation and testing aimed at making it easier than ever to join the union. It also goes live as the union continues to process a large number of new membership applications, as interest in joining the union has surged since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.

Fórsa’s general secretary Kevin Callinan commented: “The current crisis has created the necessity to be able to carry out our business in different ways. Work on this project had commenced before the Covid-19 crisis took hold, and its completion marks a vital step as we tackle the challenges of living in changed times.

“We can see that more people want to join a union in response to what’s happening in the wider economy. It’s vital that they can take those initial steps quickly and easily, and making the membership application process more accessible is part of that process.

“This is a crucial new venture to enable Fórsa to substantially increase our membership - and to strengthen the union’s hand - at a critical time in the union’s development,” he said.

The online facility is a streamlined and simplified membership application process, and will be the quickest and easiest way to join the union. All incoming applications will continue to be subject to check-off and approval by Fórsa branches and the national executive committee, while the new online system is designed to ease the administrative burden on branches.

You can join Fórsa online at https://join.forsa.ie/

Fórsa is here to protect you if you have problems arising from the coronavirus or other workplace issues. The best way to contact the union at this time is HERE.

We will deal with queries as quickly as we can but, needless to say, the union will prioritise cases where members’ jobs and incomes are at immediate risk – as well as any serious health and safety issues that may arise.

Fórsa has cancelled all face-to-face meetings for the time being. The union is redeploying its staff to prioritise engagement with management on proposals arising from the Covid-19 public health crisis, and to provide rapid and efficient responses to members’ queries and concerns.

Fórsa's main phone line (01 817 1500) is now open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively members can use the Contact Us page on the Fórsa website to submit queries directly to the relevant division within Fórsa and this remains the most efficient way to access advice directly.

Wherever possible, Fórsa staff have been equipped to work remotely. Therefore, members should not attend Fórsa offices at this time. If you have a query or concern, the best way to raise it is to contact the union HERE.