Feature Article
New union, better benefits
 

Fórsa members can save lots of money with our enhanced package of financial benefits provided or negotiated by the union.

 

Some of these are free to all Fórsa members.

 

Others are optional benefits, available only to Fórsa members, which can mean savings on insurance, salary protection, additional pension coverage and more.


Fórsa members can save lots of money with our enhanced package of financial benefits provided or negotiated by the union. Some of these are free to all Fórsa members. Others are optional benefits, available only to Fórsa members, which can mean savings on insurance, salary protection, additional pension coverage and more.
 
Fórsa members are entitled to*
  • €5,000 personal accident cover
  • €5,000 critical illness or death benefit
  • Spouses covered for death benefit too
  • €5,000 illness benefit if you’re out of work for more than 12 months
  • Evacuation or repatriation expenses up to €250,000 for members deceased, seriously injured or ill abroad
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  • Free 24/7 domestic assistance helpline  1850-77-66-44
Fórsa members can opt into Fórsa-facilitated financial benefits
  • Car insurance
  • Home insurance
  • Travel insurance
  • Additional pension benefits
  • Salary protection and life cover.
* Terms, conditions and some restrictions apply.
 
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Articles A
Action on new entrants must be fast-tracked
by Bernard Harbor
 

Fórsa has called on the Government to allocate funds in October’s Budget to begin shortening pay scales for ‘new entrants’ to non-commercial semi-state organisations next year. This would be earlier than originally envisaged in the current public sector pay deal, the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA).


Fórsa has called on the Government to allocate funds in October’s Budget to begin shortening pay scales for ‘new entrants’ to non-commercial semi-state organisations next year. This would be earlier than originally envisaged in the current public sector pay deal, the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA).


Speaking at the union’s Civil Service Division conference in Killarney last week, Fórsa joint general secretary Tom Geraghty accepted that no money was budgeted to resolve the injustice in 2018.


“While it is correct to say that no monies have been allocated to do this in 2018, I believe that Ireland’s strengthening economic and exchequer recovery means it should be possible to start funding it next year, rather than delaying until 2020 or beyond. That would require funds to be allocated in October’s Budget,” he said.


Tom and other officers of ICTU’s Public Services Committee will meet senior Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) officials to discuss the matter on Friday (27th April). The talks are taking place under the PSSA agreement, negotiated last summer, which allows for an “examination” of the new entrants’ pay issue.


Measures in the agreement are applied in non-commercial semi-state organisations.


Friday’s meeting is likely to be the first of a series of engagements dealing with the practicalities of equalising the length of pay scales. The Government has not conceded Fórsa’s call for some money to change hands next year, despite recent media reports that pay adjustments may be “on the way” for new entrants.


The union has also cautioned that media reports of payments averaging €3,300 a year are overblown, as this figure includes employer costs – like employers’ PRSI payments – which do not appear in pay packets.


The term ‘new entrants’ refers to those employed in the public service and non-commercial semi-states since January 2011. Their pay scales are currently two points longer than those of other staff, which means it takes them two years longer to get to the top of their pay scale.


Negotiators must confront the technical challenges presented by the fact that the length of pay scales varies widely across the civil and public service. Unions also want to ensure that any solution is fair to all new entrants, regardless of how long they have been employed.


Tom said pay equity was a priority for all trade unions, which had addressed the inequity in various national pay talks. “Every bit of progress in addressing this injustice has been achieved by unions collectively, through national pay negotiations and public service pay agreements,” he said.

Senior therapy advisor demanded
by Bernard Harbor
 

Fórsa has told health department officials that the appointment of a senior advisor on health and social care is vital to the successful rollout of the ten-year Sláintecare programme for improved health services.


Fórsa has told health department officials that the appointment of a senior advisor on health and social care is vital to the successful rollout of the ten-year Sláintecare programme for improved health services.

 

The union says health and social care professionals (HSCP) must be at the centre of the community-based primary care services promised in the health reform initiative, which has cross-party support.

 

Fórsa leaders met health officials last week to discuss a range of HSCP issues. The meeting came on foot of health minister Simon Harris’s appearance at Fórsa’s HSCP conference in February.

 

The HSE recently appointed a senior advisor in the field, but a similar post in the Department of Health has been vacant for some years. Fórsa understands this was a casualty of the crisis-era recruitment embargo, rather than a policy decision to abolish the post.

 

Fórsa national secretary Éamonn Donnelly told senior health officials that the appointment was a practical necessity and a test of Government commitment to quality services in communities and hospitals.

 

“The number of health and social care professionals is projected to increase to almost 20,000 under Sláintecare. The health department needs a senior advisor to coordinate policy in this area and to bring HSCP expertise and experience to broader health service policy-making,” he said.

Alarm at care staff injuries
by Hazel Gavigan
 

Fórsa has called for more support for care staff following reports that there were over 3,400 incidents where children in care or their carers were injured last year.


Fórsa has called for more support for care staff following reports that there were over 3,400 incidents where children in care or their carers were injured last year. Most of the injuries were to staff, with 1,663 cases reported last year in private centres alone. Another 50 incidents left staff in need of medical treatment.

 

The data, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Irish Examiner, covers incidents in special care settings, Tusla voluntary placements, and private centres. Most injuries to young people happened in private centres, where 251 incidents required first aid or medical treatment and another 66 were injured in accidents.

 

Young people referred to these services generally have complex psychological and sociological profiles, and have often experienced failed placements in the past.

 

Éamonn Donnelly, head of Fórsa’s Health and Welfare Division, said the union was striving to develop policies to reduce incidents. “We have to remember that these are difficult settings and it’s not realistic to eliminate all incidents. But the best course of action is to equip staff with the necessary skills and resources to deal with volatile situations,” he said.

 

He said support was also needed for staff who became overwhelmed from working in stressful and potentially violent settings.

Progress on leave standardisation
by Bernard Harbor
 

Fórsa has sought an early meeting with the HSE after the health employer recently agreed to address variations in leave for hospital staff left behind in a recent standardisation exercise.


Fórsa has sought an early meeting with the HSE after the health employer recently agreed to address variations in leave for hospital staff left behind in a recent standardisation exercise.

 

In a recent letter to the union, HSE management conceded that there was an ‘agreement in principle’ with the union, and that they would honour it.

 

The HSE standardised leave for most hospital grades in 2009. But when Fórsa looked for this to be rolled out to voluntary hospitals, it emerged that a significant number of grades – including pharmacists, clinical measurement professionals and play therapists – had been overlooked.

 

Following representations from the union, the HSE’s HR department has now produced a list of these grades, and invited the union to outline a specific claim for each.

 

The HSE said it would then “address any variations over an agreed period of time.”

Section 39 pay in WRC next month
by Bernard Harbor
 

Fórsa and other voluntary sector unions have given the HSE until the end of April to finish gathering data on pay restoration in section 39 organisations.


Fórsa and other voluntary sector unions have given the HSE until the end of April to finish gathering data on pay restoration in section 39 organisations. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has agreed to facilitate a meeting to progress the issue in May.

 

In February, the WRC proposed a phased approach to the longstanding problem of state-funded section 39s that have failed to restore pay lost during the economic and funding crisis.

 

Unions agreed that data gathering should take place first, and that further talks would follow.

 

While Fórsa successfully pressed the HSE to agree to identify section 39 organisations that have the capacity for pay restoration within their present resources, the employers last week told the union that it had yet to gather enough data.

 

Forsa will ballot for industral action at section 39 organisations which are best identified as having the capacity to restore pay.

 

Section 39s are independent organisations operating in areas like homelessness and disability services, which that depend on State funding for some or all of their income.

14,000 carers to benefit from free GP care
by Niall Shanahan
 

The Department of Health is to draft legislation to allow 14,000 carers to benefit from free GP care. The legislation is to provide in law for eligibility for GP services without charge to be extended to all those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Benefit.


The Department of Health is to draft legislation to allow 14,000 carers to benefit from free GP care. The legislation is to provide in law for eligibility for GP services without charge to be extended to all those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Benefit.

 

Announcing that he had received Cabinet approval to draft the legislation earlier this month, Minister for Health Simon Harris said, "This Government recognises the need for further supports for those who are caring for the most vulnerable in our society.

 

“This measure will enable people who are in receipt of full, or half-rate, Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Benefit to qualify automatically for GP care without fees. Carers willingly give up a great deal to provide care to family members and others, and I hope that this concrete support from the State for their mental and physical wellbeing will help alleviate some of the strain," he said.

 

Government plans to provide free GP visit cards, and additional spending on respite care, were announced last December.

 

The measures were welcomed by Family Carers Ireland. However, the family carers advocacy organisation said that, as only one in four carers actually receive Carer’s Allowance - mainly due to the means test - the group has called for all carers in receipt of the Carer’s Support Grant to receive the card, extending the service to 25,000 additional carers.

 

Further supports and information for carers are available from the HSE here.

 

Family Carers Ireland website.

HSE wellbeing website launched
by Diarmaid Mac a Bhaird
 

A new website which promotes health and wellbeing and provides access to information and resources for healthcare workers, has been launched by the Health Service Executive (HSE)


A new website, which promotes health and wellbeing and provides access to information and resources for healthcare workers, has been launched by the Health Service Executive (HSE). 

 

The site aims to be a go-to resource by providing access to support and information for professionals across the healthcare sector.

 

The HSE also announced a social media campaign to encourage healthcare workers to take photos with #WORKWELL2018 signs to celebrate the launch of the site and raise awareness of the importance of workplace wellbeing.

 

The site provides information on the services available to workers, a contacts list, and information on legislation and trends in the sector. It also features information on policy, procedures and resources, as well as helpful tips from healthcare experts on maintaining mental and physical wellness.

Fórsa audio bulletin episode 6
by Hazel Gavigan (audio editor)

A special episode focusing on Fórsa's first ever services and enterprises and civil service divisional conferences. Starting with the services and enterprises division on the 12th and 13th of April and then the civil service division on the 18th and 19th, we cover some of the main motions discussed over the four days. Presented by Hazel Gavigan and Diarmaid Mac A Bhaird.


Also in this issue
Youth Committee events news
by Niall Shanahan
 

Forsa's Youth Committee has not one, but two events coming up.


Forsa's Youth Committee has not one, but two events coming up, kicking off with the next meeting of the committee this coming Thursday (26th April) from 2pm to 4pm at Nerney's Court. The meeting is preceded by training for members of the committee from 11am.
 
Fórsa lead organiser Joe O'Connor is actively encouraging Fórsa members, aged 35 or under, to contact him directly if you've an interest in joining the committee.
 
The Youth Committee is also hosting a quiz event at Nerney's Court on Thursday 3rd May, more details are available here, and Facebook event details are available here.
BLOG: When the man with a van is his very own man
by Bernard Harbor
 
We used to joke that my younger brother Kevin was from the Dutch side of the family. We were Harbors and he was a Van Driver. Geddit?
 
Anyway, he drove a van for a living and one day, much to our surprise, Kevin announced that he was now self-employed.
 
In our late-1980s working class circle, this seemingly entrepreneurial break from the world of employment was as unusual as it was unexpected.
 
Except it wasn’t what it seemed.
 
What had happened was this. One morning, Kevin’s boss told him he was now self-employed. He could rent the van and would do his deliveries as before. Only now he was a contractor, not an employee. And he’d have to sort out his own tax and insurance.
 
They privatised the buses around the same time. That’s another story but, like Kevin’s newfound small businessman status, back then it seemed as inexplicable as it was unsettling.
 
Sure enough, a short while later the ‘contracts’ from (though not the van repayments to) Kevin’s former boss thinned out. Then they disappeared. No redeployment. No holiday pay. No redundancy. No responsibilities.
 
Cool platforms
 
Almost three decades later, as the Ubers, Deliveroos, Amazons and others rushed to explain that they were ‘platforms’ not employers, I started to hear the term ‘gig economy.’ I came to realise that my unwitting little brother was among its pioneers but, no matter how cool it might sound now, I was right about that unsettling feeling.
 
Countless workers who would simply have been employees in previous eras now work as ‘contractors’ without the protections against sub-minimum wage and unfair dismissal – or benefits like paid holidays and sick leave – that the rest of us take for granted.

(Contd.)
 
Cue teams of legal, trade union and academic experts wrestling with the distinction between employed and contractor status, and the thorny challenge of maintaining employees’ rights in situations where – how to put it? – they just ain’t employees
 
One of those experts, Jeremias Prassl of Magdalen College Oxford, spoke at the prestigious Industrial Relations News conference in Dublin earlier this year. He reckons substantive aspects of laws governing rights at work need to be reviewed to protect workers in the new dispensation.
 
Confronted with zero-hour arrangements, bogus self-employment, and other new forms of work organisation, Professor Prassl said unions must address the limits of laws on unfair dismissal, minimum wages, and qualifying periods for job protection.
 
But he says reform of social welfare and taxation policy is as, if not more, important. That’s because the so-called gig economy is luring people away from standard employment relationships by offering them a “no income tax” proposition.
 
Less attractive
 
Stephen Holst of legal firm McCann Fitzgerald agrees that tax and PRSI reforms “could be the biggest driver of change” in this area. He says at least €60 million a year is lost to the Irish exchequer through the false classification of work as self-employment, which allows companies to avoid paying employers’ PRSI.
 
Holst said these arrangements – including the prospect of lower income tax bills – can look attractive to workers at first. But they are less appealing when you need to fall back on PRSI-related benefits like maternity leave, pensions and social security.
 
Prassi said there was evidence that the gig economy was causing huge tax losses in other jurisdictions too. And he added that moving workers out of the PAYE system meant they carried all the burden of tax compliance.
 
Yet this issue could be relatively easy to address because all the data about who works, who for, and for how much, exists on the platforms – like Uber and Deliveroo – that typify the gig economy.
 
Should those of us in steady employment be concerned? A recent report from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) found that precarious ‘gig economy’ working arrangements were now spreading, including into the seemingly safe neighbourhoods of public administration, health and education.
 
Insecure and Uncertain: Precarious Work in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, revealed that 8% of the Republic’s workforce – or over 158,000 people – see significant variations in their weekly or monthly working hours. Another 7% are in temporary employment, often simply because they can’t find permanent work.
 
The union study found that female and young workers are most likely to be stuck in precarious or insecure jobs. And, while uncertain work is most common in distribution, hotels, catering, retail and construction, it’s spreading to other areas including the public service.

Alarming
 
The alarming growth in precarious work since 2008 has prompted ICTU to urge the Government to legislate to address the problem. It wants new laws to guarantee the right to a minimum number of working hours, and to provide workers with a written statement of their terms and conditions from day one of their employment.
 
Meanwhile, Labour’s Ged Nash is to speak at Fórsa’s Services and Enterprises Divisional conference about his proposed legislation aimed at strengthening protections for precarious workers. His proposals go further than new laws envisaged by the Government, which would ban zero hour contracts in all situations except emergency cover, short-term relief work, or genuine casual work.
 
The Congress report says the coalition’s approach is insufficient against the background of a dramatic 34% rise in part-time work and self-employment, which it says is “indicative of significant growth in bogus or false self-employment.”
 
Meanwhile, Professor Prassl says unions must avoid “falling into a crazy Luddite trap,” and should instead take on the negative aspects of the changing economy while embracing technology and innovation. “Over the centuries, technology has never destroyed the net amount of work, but it has made it better, safer, and more fun,” he says.
 
Unions also face the practical challenge of developing services that gig workers actually want. Things like advice on contracts and intelligence about good and bad ‘gig’ employers are not standard trade union fare, but they would be a real boost to the Kevins of today.
 
On the plus side, Prassl makes the rather obvious point that reaching and communicating with gig workers shouldn’t be that difficult, After all, they are – they have to be – among the most IT and social media literate people on the planet.
 
In any case, unions will have to up their game to stay relevant if, as seems likely, the sector keeps growing at its current rate.
 
This article was first published in Issue No.2 of Fórsa magazine which is available in your workplace now. You can download the magazine here