A new sustainability policy, outlining actions the union is taking to reduce its impact on the environment is available on the Fórsa website. The policy was formally ratified by the union’s National Executive (NEC) in late September.

Reducing the use of paper, eliminating unnecessary travel (particularly by air) for work purposes where viable alternatives exist and lowering energy consumption in union offices are among the policy’s commitments.

Other measures include ensuring associates take account of sustainability issues in their contracted work and continued engagement with environmental organisations and community activism on the climate crisis.

Fórsa president Ann McGee welcomed the ratification of the policy. “Fórsa is an organisation with a wide reach and influence to enact positive change in our society, and this policy is a significant statement of our commitment to take action to address the climate crisis.”

Deputy general secretary Matt Staunton said the policy is something the union can be proud of. “This is an important piece of work and a set of guiding principles for changing how we work, to develop a more sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to everything we do,” he said.

The policy document sets out the scope, principals and practical steps being taken to reduce the impact work practices in Fórsa have on the environment, and applies to all Fórsa staff and buildings.

See the full policy HERE.

The HSE has confirmed that the Clerical/Admin grades 3 to 6 Job Evaluation scheme remains unaltered. The written confirmation from the HSE follows concerns raised by Fórsa about localised attempts to deviate from the terms of the agreed scheme.

Head of Fórsa’s Health and Welfare division Éamonn Donnelly explained: “There were a number of attempts to alter the terms of the scheme by managers, who were seeking extra layers of sign-off and, in some cases, the facility to decide whether or not an application should go forward for evaluation.

“This seemed to have gathered some support within the HSE. We reported the matter to the Health Sector Oversights Body and informed all parties that we would be moving towards an overall national ballot for industrial action if our scheme was altered,” he said.

Éamonn said the union has since received formal confirmation that the scheme remains unaltered. “If local managers, therefore, attempt to tailor the terms of the scheme in their area, the ongoing sanction for industrial action in that particular area remains in place,” he said.

Fórsa raised the matter with senior HR in HSE in September following a meeting of the Health Sector Oversights Body. Eamonn advised the oversights body that any breaches of a collective agreement are wholly unacceptable, and advised the HSE that a national ballot would take place if assurances weren’t received by 3rd October.

Senior HSE employee relations executive Paul Byrne, in a letter to the union sent last week, confirmed that all elements of the agreement remained in place and can only be changed by agreement with Fórsa.

Fórsa General Secretary Kevin Callinan has said that a reestablishment of social dialogue, bringing together government, unions and employers, could resolve or improve issues where the government has failed, including childcare, education and housing.

Kevin made the remarks yesterday during a speech to SIPTU’s national conference which is taking place in Cork. He was addressing delegates on union concerns over growing inequality in Irish society, and the absence of the ‘balancing’ influence that social partnership provided up to its collapse in 2009.

He told delegates: “In the early years of social partnership the 1990 Industrial Relations Act became law resulting in a huge reduction in strike days. The legislation tilted the balance towards employers but the existence of the institution of social partnership provided a measure of redress to unions and their members.

“The apparatus of social partnership helped to fill the void and to provide stability to the changed conditions, while the collapse of social partnership when the crisis hit removed this balance,” he said.

Kevin emphasised that he did not regard the old model of social partnership as entirely successful, and remains critical of its deficits as well as what he called 'missed opportunities' by unions: “Whatever its failings, and there were many, social partnership provided a mechanism to engage in genuine social dialogue with the aim of crafting policy solutions to national problems,” he said.

Kevin said the Labour Employer Economic Forum, which eventually replaced social partnership, “is more about meeting the obligations under the revised EU governance arrangements than genuine collaboration.”

Kevin cited remarks made by IBEC CEO Danny McCoy at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation’s conference to mark the ILO centenary in September. “He delivered a devastating critique of Irish infrastructural capacity while making the case for genuine social dialogue.

“Albeit couched in a concern for long-term national competitiveness, he highlighted a range of failings including the decline in the standing of our universities, the exorbitant cost of childcare, the excessive commutes for so many and the absence of effective solutions to the housing crisis.

I put it to you that real social dialogue just might resolve, or at least improve, these issues where government has failed,” he said.

Limits

Kevin told SIPTU delegates that the emergence of calls for the repeal of the Industrial Relations Act was not surprising as many employers continue to develop employment practices that stretch the limits of what the law permits.

“Some employers have no compunction in using their ample resources to run to the courts to impede unions and workers from invoking the right to strike in what effectively becomes a test of the respective financial position of both parties – one that no union can win.

“When the latter scenario becomes reality it is time for decisive action to restore fairness to the relationship between capital and labour,” he said.

Kevin said trade unions will not be silent on the issue: “The law must be changed to ensure not just the right to organise but the right to bargain effectively. Otherwise it will have no credibility and little acceptance,” he said. He told delegates that unions needed to be relevant, empathetic and visible both to their members and to wider society, and that the current project by Congress to create local trade union centres was part of the effort to achieve this: “We must be connected to the concerns of workers and their local communities; we must be on their side; and we must be available to them,” he said.

Fórsa and health service employers met in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for several conciliation sessions aimed at resolving a dispute over job losses and staffing levels of administrative staff and health and social care professionals (HSCPs) in Louth County hospital and Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in late September.

Fórsa official Barry Cunningham said the conciliation had resulted in agreement to fill 12 HSCP posts on a permanent basis, and the union are awaiting approval for a further six HSCP posts to be filled on the same basis.

“We are now engaged in a process, and have a date for further WRC facilitated conciliation session in Drogheda next Monday (14th October),” he said.

Barry added that the union would continue discussing measures to address clerical vacancies in the hospitals at the upcoming WRC meeting.

The union has also expressed concern at growing shortages of health and social care professionals at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, which it says are undermining hospital capacity.

Clerical-admin staff and HSCPs in the hospitals took limited industrial action from late August until WRC facilitated talks began in September.

Fórsa has welcomed the introduction of the ‘Smile agus Sláinte’ National Oral Health Policy 2019.

The scheme, which has been agreed by Fórsa in principle, establishes guidelines to transform the current oral healthcare service and aims to reduce inequalities across the population by enabling access to oral healthcare and improve oral health for vulnerable groups.

Actions identified in the policy document include the support of regulation and strategies to reduce alcohol use, stop tobacco use and improve diet control, and to develop referral pathways of care from primary care to community oral healthcare services.

Fórsa branch support officer Gina Robinson explained: “The scheme was provisionally accepted following a meeting with officials from the Health and Welfare division and the Department of Health. A policy implementation group has been established. Once the policy is implemented Fórsa will engage further with the department”.

Dental nurses, who are part of the Allied Health Professionals Group, are advised to read the policy document which can be found HERE. Gina advised that particular attention should be paid to the action points on pages 130-135.

For more information on the scheme click HERE.

Fórsa and the Department of Education are due to convene under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for talks to resolve the ongoing dispute over the pay and conditions of grant-paid school secretaries.

In a lengthy Dáil debate last week the Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD opened with a demand that current industrial action by school secretaries be suspended before agreeing to participate in WRC discussions.

However, by the conclusion of the debate the demand was dropped, and Fórsa immediately welcomed the opportunity to work to resolve the issues at the heart of this dispute.

Speaking to reporters Fórsa’s Head of Education Andy Pike described events as “a dramatic turnaround.”

"We have the unusual situation of the education minister opening up the debate in the House at 5.30pm saying that the government wouldn't go to the WRC and closing the debate at 7.15pm by changing his mind and saying they would,” he said.

Support

The Dáil debate witnessed significant support from Opposition benches from a range of party and independent TDs.

Dublin South Central TD Joan Collins encouraged school secretaries to join Fórsa, and criticised the Minister’s opening demands to stand down their industrial action:

“School secretaries know from experience that if they and Fórsa accede to this request, they will be drawn back into a process with no conclusion in sight.

“They want to get this dealt with. They want to go into 2020 in the knowledge that they are direct employees of the State. That is their bottom line,” she said.

First step

Andy Pike said the union welcomed the broad support for school secretaries and the opportunity to get into talks: “This is the first positive step towards resolving this issue and making sure that secretaries across the school sector are paid fairly.

“We want to ensure school secretaries and caretakers are afforded the opportunity to work in a system that properly reflects their huge value to the school community,” he said.

School secretary members are continuing to engage in a work to rule which has withdrawn school secretaries from work on public service systems and databases on the basis that, because they are not paid or recognised as public servants, they will refuse to carry out the functions of public servants.

The action is designed to cause significant disruption to the administration of the schools sector without affecting students or parents.

Ahead of the Dáil debate last week, Andy had written to the department seeking a commitment to utilise the services of the WRC to resolve the dispute, and said the department had now had sufficient time to analyse the returns from their survey of school principals.

A date for talks to commence at the WRC is expected to be known shortly.

Fórsa Trade Union’s Equality Committee will launch the Traveller Network event on the 9th November in Sligo Town Hall at 11am.

Speakers on the day include James O’Leary, CEO of INVOLVE and Martin Ward of the Galway Traveller Movement. Further speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

The launch of the Traveller Network follows on from the launch of previous Fórsa Equality Committee networks, including the Fórsa Women’s Activist Network and the Disability Network.

Fórsa official Lisa Connell explained: “The purpose of the event is to highlight many of the issues that affect Travellers in the workplace, including the depth of structural inequalities facing travellers from accessing the workplace, as well as socio-economic rights and a focus on public policy provisions.

“We’re looking forward to welcoming Fórsa members and Traveller representatives to meet and discuss these issues,” she said.

For further information about the event please contact Lisa Connell.

There was strong representation by Fórsa’s Galway branch at a recent anti-racism rally in Galway City on 28th September.

The march, organised by the Galway Anti-Racism Network (GARN) sought to unify the community against rising racism, and oppose direct provision.

Union branch activists, community groups and local representatives met the residents of the Great Western Direct Provision Centre before marching through the city to the Eglington Direct Provision Centre in Salthill.

Fórsa official Pádraig Mulligan spoke briefly at the event, in support of colleagues in GARN, and opposing racism.

“We want to show solidarity with our community here in Galway” said Pádraig.

“Galway is the city of the tribes, a multicultural city. No matter where you’re from you’re always welcome here and we will not tolerate racist behaviour in this town” he said.

For more information on GARN click here.

Health workers are now allowed 20 days bereavement leave on the death of a spouse or child following new measures introduced on 1^st October. It follows Fórsa’s win of an important case in the Labour Court. The previous allowance was just five days.

The Court recommended that the changes should also apply in ‘section 38’ organisations, which are independent but directly funded by the State to deliver health services. The improvement came into force last week (1st October).

The HSE had resisted the change, which was earlier introduced in the civil service, on the grounds of cost. But Fórsa official Brian Gorman told the Court that the employer’s figures were wrong, and the potential costs were much lower than it had estimated.

“We are talking about people dealing with the loss of a partner, son or daughter. We made the case that everyone in these tragic circumstances experiences tremendous grief, regardless of the sector they work in,” he said.

A copy of the HSE’s circular on the new measures is available here.