Fórsa has announced the recommencement of industrial action in local authorities, citing the failure of the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) to engage meaningfully with the union on the establishment of a job evaluation scheme for workers in the sector.

Talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) between the union and the employer broke down yesterday afternoon, in what was the second conciliation meeting on the issue.

Earlier this month local authority workers suspended planned industrial action to allow for talks, after assurances that the employer was committed to meaningful and constructive engagement on the issue.

Fórsa’s Head of Local Government and Local Services Richy Carrothers said that local authority management took the most surprising and strident position to date.

“Both sides had committed to engaging meaningfully and constructively to resolve this dispute, but management has betrayed the good faith of the process. The LGMA had committed to the joint union and management referral to the WRC, but this has now been breached. The actions of the LGMA yesterday have undermined the process and we have lost all trust that management will meaningfully negotiate a resolution to this dispute,” he said.

Richy said that the union has been left with no option but to reactivate the industrial action campaign for job evaluation in the local authority sector.

“The LGMA has forced this action. They have failed the process and they have failed our members. They have betrayed the good faith joint union management referral. We are putting them on notice that dispute isn’t going to go away by ignoring it. They should be in no doubt about the determination of our members to secure job evaluation in the sector. The members demand and deserve job evaluation and we will not squander the mandate that they have given us,” he said.

Arrangements will soon be made in respect of fresh industrial action notices on each local authority, and members will be notified in due course.