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The purpose of the Fórsa audio news bulletin is to provide members with another way to stay up to date with what’s happening across the union.

The audio format allows members to hear directly from the officials whose job it is to represent them. It also means that much of the content available in the written news bulletin is more accessible.

Each episode will consist of updates from across the union’s five divisions as well as interviews with officials, elected officers and external expert guests.

To listen, click the ‘play’ icon on the main page of this news bulletin. If your email server is preventing you from being able to see this ‘play’ icon, simply click HERE instead to listen on the SoundCloud streaming website.

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Education staff get new year pay boost
by Bernard Harbor

Public servants working in the education sector are due a 1% pay increase with effect from 1st January 2018, under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) negotiated by Fórsa and other public service unions. The PSSA will deliver income restoration worth over 7% of salary to more than 70% of public servants between now and 2020.

Public servants working in the education sector are due a 1% pay increase with effect from 1st January 2018, under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) negotiated by Fórsa and other public service unions. The next instalment of the deal, which was backed by members of the three unions that recently amalgamated to create our new union, will see a further 1% adjustment in October.

In total, the PSSA will deliver income restoration worth over 7% of salary to more than 70% of public servants between now and 2020.

Late last year, a timetable for the full abolition of FEMPI legislation, which underpinned public service pay cuts and pension levies, was officially outlined with the publication of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Bill. This also gave effect to the provisions of the PSSA.

Fórsa general secretary Shay Cody said the legislation was a landmark in the union campaign to restore incomes, which were cut by an average of around 14% under FEMPI during the recession.

“This legislation underpins the pay adjustments agreed in the PSSA deal, including a 1% increase due now. More significantly, it establishes a legal timetable for the dismantling of the hated FEMPI legislation. This is what Fórsa and other unions have been working for since the pension levy was first imposed on public servants in 2009,” he said.

The PSSA will see pay lost through ‘FEMPI’ legislation restored to more than 90% of public servants – those earning up to €70,000 a year – by the end of 2020. Almost all the rest will see full pay restoration within a further two years.

It also preserves the value of public service pensions, while taking almost a quarter of public servants out of FEMPI pension levy provisions by 2020. This will be done by increasing the pension levy ceiling from €28,750 to €34,500 for all staff except those who benefit from ‘fast accrual’ pension arrangements. This will be worth a total of €575 per year.

Any remaining pension levy will be converted into a ‘pension related deduction’ (PRD). Staff who joined the public service on or after 1st January 2013 will pay a smaller additional contribution, reflecting the fact that their pension benefits are different to the schemes applying to those who joined before that date.

The legislation repeals the 2009 FEMPI Act with effect from 1st January 2018. It also repeals section 2(3) of the 2009 FEMPI No.2 Act – the legislation that reduced fixed periodic allowances by 5% – from 1st October 2020. Section 5(1) of the 2009 Act is also repealed from January 2021, which will allow the Labour Court and WRC to consider ‘cost-increasing claims’ from that date.

PSSA income adjustments

1st January 2018: 1% pay adjustment
1st October 2018: 1% pay adjustment
1st January 2019: Pension levy threshold up from €28,750 to €32,000 (worth €325pa)
1st January 2019: 1% pay adjustment for those earning less than €30,000
1st September 2019: 1.75% pay adjustment
1st January 2020: Pension levy threshold increased to €34,500 (worth €250pa)
1st January 2020: 0.5% pay increase for those earning less than €32,000
1st October 2020: 2% pay adjustment

You can access the range of departmental circulars, which apply the pay changes to different grades, HERE.

Fórsa clears final hurdle
by Bernard Harbor

The final piece of the Fórsa jigsaw was put in place on 2nd January, when the Registrar for Friendly Societies confirmed that the new union was registered and cleared to start work on behalf of more than 80,000 members.

The new union launched with a brand new visual identity, and with strong backing from the members of the three organisations – the CPSU, IMPACT, and the PSEU – which had put in over two years’ work to make the amalgamation happen.

Those three unions effectively ceased to exist once the merger was sanctioned after a six-week statutory period that followed ballots, which strongly endorsed the move.

Fórsa now collectively represents workers across the civil and public services, commercial and non-commercial semi-state organisations, the community and voluntary sector, and private companies in aviation, telecommunications and elsewhere.

We are the second largest union in the country, and the strongest and most influential trade union voice in the Irish public service and semi-state sector.

After pooling the resources of the three former unions, Fórsa is also financially stronger, with €85 million in assets including a €50 million dispute fund. So, while members’ subscriptions are unchanged, the new organisation offers an enhanced range of financial benefits and free helplines.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), which brings together organisations with a combined membership of over 800,000, described the arrival of Fórsa as “highly significant and very positive for the Irish trade union movement.”

Its general secretary Patricia King said: “Fórsa provides a strong new voice for workers across a range of areas, and it will also enhance the capacity and effectiveness of the wider trade union movement across the island.”

Working time window opens
by Derek Mullen

Public servants who want to revert to ‘pre-Haddington Road’ working hours – with a pro-rata salary reduction – can apply to do so between now and April 2018.

Public servants who want to revert to ‘pre-Haddington Road’ working hours – with a pro-rata salary reduction – can apply to do so between now and April 2018. The opportunity, which was negotiated by Fórsa as part of the Public Services Stability Agreement (PSSA), will then close before briefly reopening between January and April 2021.

Staff who opt to revert to the shorter working week have to do so permanently. And applications are subject to the ‘business needs’ of the organisation they work in.

During last year’s talks on the PSSA, the union sought a return to pre-2011 hours for all. But the employers were adamant that they would not do a deal that restored working time lost under previous agreements. Fórsa officials repeatedly raised the issue, but the other side wouldn’t budge.

The current provisions fall short of the unions’ ambition, but they at least give options to staff whose circumstances mean time is more important to them than money.

Protections won on technological universities
by Niall Shanahan

Fórsa has secured the terms and working conditions of members working in the institutes of technology sector as the Technological Universities Bill gets set to combine the strength of the institutes of technology across the country, in order to develop top class technological universities.

The Technological Universities Bill (2015) will combine the strength of the institutes of technology across the country, in order to develop top class technological universities. The Bill completed the report and final stages in the Dáil in December.

Organiser Lisa Connell said Fórsa has secured the terms and working conditions of members working in the sector, as well as ensuring that their roles in the technological universities are protected within the revised structures.

Lisa said commitments had also been secured on:

Provision of continuous professional development training for staff represented by Fórsa
Reassignment and transfer of existing staff, who will not be re-assigned to one of the other constituent institutes of technology unless procedures are agreed
Protection of the regional mission of the institutes of technology
A national negotiation forum for staff represented by Fórsa and other unions.

Lisa explained: “The union continues to meet regularly with the Department of Education on issues of importance to our members in the institutes of technology. As the merging of institutes into technological universities marks a significant change, we’ve secured a number of key conditions for our members.”

The Department of Education has written to Fórsa confirming the protections won on conditions of service and superannuation and collective agreements.

Milestone

Higher education minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor has described the legislation as “a very significant milestone in the evolution of the higher education sector, and the institutes of technology sector in particular.” The minister welcomed the approval of amendments to the Technological Universities Bill last November, allowing the legislation to proceed through the Houses of the Oireachtas.

The amendments were developed following a consultation process in 2017. Stakeholders included Fórsa, the TUI, the Union of Students in Ireland and the Technological Higher Education Association.

The amendments relate to terms and conditions of service for staff, strengthening the regional remit of a technological university, membership of governing bodies and amendments to the application process for technological university designation.

There are currently four consortia engaged with the process to become designated as technological universities. These are:

TU4Dublin (Dublin Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Tallaght, Institute of Technology Blanchardstown)
Technological University for the South-East (TUSE – consisting of Waterford Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Carlow)
Munster Technological University (MTU – consisting of Cork Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Tralee)
Connaught Ulster Alliance (CUA – consisting of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Sligo and Letterkenny Institute of Technology).

Fórsa makes the case for School Completion Programme
Union will bring issue to oversight body
by Niall Shanahan

Deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan has written to officials at the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to demand progress on the regularisation of terms and conditions for staff in the School Completion Programme (SCP).

Fórsa is to bring the issue of School Completion Programme staff to the Central Oversight Group for the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA), in order to progress the issue of regularisation of terms and conditions of employment. Members of Fórsa’s SCP branch balloted in favour of industrial action last year on the issue.

The SCP was established in 2002 and provides strategic support to vulnerable children, enabling them to complete their second level education. The programme is made up of 124 local projects, which work in 470 primary schools and 224 secondary schools nationwide.

Kevin met with officials from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and Tusla, along with representatives of Fórsa’s School Completion branch in December.

Kevin subsequently wrote to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to express the union’s extreme disappointment that the department failed to put proposals to regularise the terms and conditions of employment for SCP members.

He said the union had raised the issue of employment status and related terms and conditions of employment over several years, and said the Department of Education and Skills had previously recognised the need to put ‘good order’ on arrangements, before responsibility for the SCP was transferred to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

He said: “Our concern relates to the retrospective correction of a grievous wrong done to those co-ordinators and project staff employed by local management committees, who do not enjoy public service conditions, while the majority of their counterparts employed by education and training boards possess such status, including membership of the appropriate pension scheme.”

Kevin highlighted the recognition of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone, for the value of the programme, as well as the positive findings of the ESRI in its 2015 report on the programme. He added: “These are achievements for the entirety of the SCP and are not confined to the cohort of staff employed by ETBs. Basic fairness and justice demands that they are all treated equally.”

He said no process on regularisation, and the future direction of SCP, should proceed until the issue of satisfactory terms and conditions of employment had been agreed, and said both government departments had accepted this was reasonable.

Kevin advised the department that he would bring the matters in dispute to the attention of the Oversight Group.

Also in this issue

Fórsa welcomes education gender taskforce
by Roisin McKane

Fórsa has welcomed the recent establishment of a gender equality taskforce for higher education.

Fórsa has welcomed the establishment of a gender equality taskforce for higher education, which was announced by junior minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor towards the end of last year. The union represents some 12,000 education workers, predominantly women in lower-paid roles including special needs assistants, clerical staff, school secretaries and early years professionals.

The launch follows on from the findings of a national review into gender inequality in the higher education sector, which was conducted by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and published in 2016. The report concluded that women were significantly under-represented at senior levels in higher education establishments, and said gender inequality is a serious issue in the sector.

The report found that, in 2015, 81% of professional positions were held by men and, while women represented 62% of non-academic staff, men represented 72% of the highest paid non-academic staff.

While there are currently three female presidents of institutes of technology, there has never been a female university president in the Republic of Ireland.

The taskforce aims to take a two-pronged approach to tackle the issue of gender inequality. It will prepare a three-year action plan in consultation with stakeholders. And it will oversee a national review of recruitment and promotion policies now in place.

Fórsa will be involved in the consultation, and the union has been invited to participate in a stakeholder event later in January 2018. This is significant as the union was excluded from the HEA review – and subsequently received an apology from the then-chief executive.

The 2018 budget included a provision of €500,000 to support the taskforce and greater gender equality in the sector.

Keeping you in touch
by Bernard Harbor

Fórsa has developed a full suite of publications for union members.

You’re reading one of five new fortnightly Fórsa bulletins. This one’s tailored for members in education. We also have bespoke editions for members in the civil service, health, local authorities and the services and enterprises sector.

The initiative represents our determination to improve member communications in the new union.

We’ve also published the first edition of our new Fórsa magazine (see picture), which should now be available in your workplace.

The new Fórsa website will take a little longer to get in place, simply because of the scale of the task of merging the best from the former union websites, adding new content, and finalising a top-class design. Staff from each of the three former unions have been working together in this, and we expect to have the new Fórsa website up in March.

In the meantime, you can go to a holding page at www.forsa.ie. This page links to our social media platforms – on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Soundcloud. Our first tweet reached over 16,400 people. And, since the start of the year, we’ve had over 1,370 Facebook engagements.

We look forward to delivering further improvements in Fórsa communications and information over the coming months. Do let us know what you think!

Bernard Harbor, Fórsa head of communications.

Fórsa appointment to IT Tallaght

Fórsa official Stella Griffin has been appointed to the governing body of the Tallaght Institute of Technology in Dublin. Stella’s appointment is one of four confirmed last month by the Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton.

The term of office runs until 31st March 2020.

Stella is an assistant general secretary with Fórsa, and has several years of experience working with Fórsa members in the institutes of technology, the education and training boards (ETBs), the School Completion Programme (SCP) and Fórsa's Education No.1 branch.

Stella said she is looking forward to the opportunity of working with the governing body, as it faces into the process of merging with the Dublin and Blanchardstown Institutes of Technology to form a new technological university.

Stella said: "I think this is a timely appointment and the immediate future presents a great challenge for all of us. As the legislation to create the technological universities is making its way through the Oireachtas, we'll have a great deal of preparation to do. I'm really looking forward to working with other people on the board over the next two years."

Compulsory public service retirement age raised
by Bernard Harbor

The Government is to legislate to allow public servants who are currently obliged to retire at age 65 to opt to stay in work longer.

The Government is to legislate to allow public servants who are currently obliged to retire at age 65 to opt to stay in work longer. Once enacted, the law will give public servants recruited before 1st April 2004 the option to retire at any time up to age 70.

The new arrangements will benefit public servants who must currently retire at 65, but who depend on the state old age pension for part of their retirement income. They have faced a problem since the state pension age was increased from 65 to 66.

Public servants recruited after 1st April 2004 are not affected because they either have a retirement age of 70 already, or they have no compulsory retirement age.

The education department has clarified that, under interim arrangements, certain education staff can continue in work until the end of the school or academic year in which they reach age 66. This was on foot of a request for clarification from Fórsa deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan.

Press reports last November predicted that the new measure would mean a compulsory increase in the retirement age for all civil and public servants. It does not.

Fórsa had been working to resolve the plight of public servants who are forced to retire at age 65, but who cannot access the state pension until they are 66. Discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform took place under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA), which was backed the union’s members in ballots last year.

Pending the enactment of legislation to introduce the change, unions and management have agreed limited interim arrangements to allow public servants who want to stay in work until the state pension age to be re-hired. Under these interim arrangements, staff can retire and receive their lump sum, before being re-hired in their current role.

However, they will be placed on the first point of the non-pensionable pay scale, and they will not make further pension contributions. Although this arrangement is not ideal, it means that public servants won’t be forced to retire before they are due payment of their full pension.

Sex harassment law change sought
by Sean Carabini

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is seeking legal changes to make it easier for victims to report sexually abusive behaviour in the workplace.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is seeking legal changes to make it easier for victims to report sexually abusive behaviour in the workplace. The move comes after months of intense focus on workplace sexual harassment in Ireland and across the globe.

Congress general secretary Patricia King has written to employment affairs minister Regina Doherty, saying that reports of workplace sexual misconduct should be treated as ‘protected disclosures,’ which could be made to external bodies like the Workplace Relations Commission or Health and Safety Authority.

Under existing legislation, sexual harassment is categorised as a ‘grievance,’ which means workers must direct their complaints to employers. However, as Ms King points out in her letter: “very often the perpetrator can be the most senior-ranked person in the employment.”

Ms King said sexual harassment in the workplace pollutes the working environment. “It can have a devastating effect on the health, confidence, morale and performance of those affected by it,” she said.

Separately, Fórsa and other unions criticised a minister of state, whose discriminatory comments resulted in a €7,500 compensation award towards the end of last year. The case was taken by the PSEU, one of the unions that merged to form the new union.

During an interview for the post of private secretary to Minister John Halligan, the Waterford TD asked the candidate: “Are you a married woman? Do you have children? How old are your children?

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudication officer declared the comments discriminatory under equality legislation, after the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) took up the case.

Minister Halligan bizarrely claimed he had simply been championing “family friendly” work arrangements. In a statement, he also cited his inexperience at interviewing. “This was the first time I was conducting an interview of this sort and I did not realise that it was unacceptable to ask such a question,” he said. However, the candidate told the WRC that he had prefaced his question by saying: “I know I shouldn’t say this.”

Coalition seeks pension cut reversal
by Bernard Harbor

Fórsa joined a broad coalition in a demonstration to demand the reversal of 2012 pension cuts.

Fórsa joined a broad coalition of unions, and organisations campaigning for pensioners and women, in a demonstration on Wednesday (17th January) to demand the reversal of 2012 pension cuts, which fall hardest on women.

The coalition, which brings the union together with Age Action Ireland, Active Retirement Ireland, the National Women’s Council, the Irish Countrywomen’s Association and Siptu, has also sought an urgent meeting with social protection minister Regina Doherty.

The cabinet sub-committee on pensions discussed the issue yesterday (Wednesday).

It’s estimated that as many as 40,000 people – mostly women who left the workforce to rear children or care for others – have been hit by the changes, which mean state pension entitlements are based on an average of the contributions made during each year at work. Crucially, the methodology takes the first PRSI payment as the starting point for averaging, which can drastically reduce the annual average payment for workers who paid PRSI in part-time student jobs.

Those who took time out of the workforce to raise a family, or to care for relatives, after 1994 are not affected. But many of those currently reaching retirement left work before that year.

Fórsa and other coalition members wrote to Minister Doherty last month. “Though greatly disappointed that no measure to address this inequality was announced in October’s budget, we welcome your subsequent commitment to find a solution, and your plan to bring a proposal to cabinet,” they said.