Ireland’s councils lag behind local authorities in Europe, Britain and Northern Ireland when it comes to job evaluation, according to Fórsa. The union will be restating its case for the introduction of a local government job evaluation scheme in the Workplace Relations Commission today (8th July).
Fórsa wants a local authority scheme similar to the ones that operate in the HSE and the education sector. The union says there are disparities in pay rates across the local government sector, where staff doing the same work could be paid more or less depending on which council they work for.
The union balloted its members on the issue last year in response to management’s withdrawal from Labour Court proceedings on the long-running dispute.
The matter went to the Labour Court in 2020 and, in an unusual move, Fórsa was ordered to prepare a business case to support its claim. The union completed this work, but the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), which represents council employers, refused to return to the Labour Court.
The head of Fórsa’s Local Government Division, Richy Carruthers, said the absence of a job evaluation scheme put Ireland out of step with much of Europe. “In the six counties, for example, job evaluation has been in place across all local authorities for many years.
“By contrast, our pay system lacks equality, consistency and fairness. Local authorities suffered the greatest reduction of numbers of employees during the austerity era, which resulted in significant grade drift. Job evaluation is also an essential tool for dealing with inequality.
“Local authority workers deserve no less favourable treatment than colleagues in other sectors, and our union is determined to achieve access to scheme for local authority staff,” he said.
Fórsa says technicians, archivists, heritage officers, museum curators, environmental awareness officers, library staff, authorised officers and IT workers are among those where pay rates for the same work differs across counties.
Job evaluation is an established tool that allows the knowledge, skills and responsibilities associated with individual jobs – rather than grades or staff categories – to be assessed and appropriately rewarded.
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