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.

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.

Referral

In an update to school secretaries this week Andy said one key aspect of the referral to the WRC is the willingness of school employers to participate in the process: "This is important as for the dispute to be addressed by the WRC and potentially the Labour Court under the Industrial Relations Acts, the school employers must be willing to participate in the process.

"The Department of Education maintains whilst it determines access to public service pay and pensions, it is not the employer of school secretaries or caretakers and therefore cannot negotiate contracts or conditions of employment.

"Therefore the WRC process cannot commence unless school employers are also involved in the process. The Department of Education and Skills will now ascertain if the school management bodies are prepared to represent school employers in the negotiations," he said.

Andy further advised that the department has yet to conclude analysis of their recent survey of school employers on the potential costs of the claim and state they will not be able to commence discussions for another week. "The WRC has asked the parties to reconvene on Tuesday 15^th October by which time the Department should have completed their analysis of costings and will also have ascertained if the school management bodies are prepared to represent schools in this process. The WRC will then determine if the referral can proceed in the normal manner with the option of referral to the Labour Court if necessary," he added.

Fórsa informed the WRC and the Department of Education that the current industrial action would continue until such time as a formal WRC process, as outlined last week, actually commences.  

Andy said Fórsa will attend next week to ascertain if there is a basis for formal talks using the WRC and the Labour Court. "Until then the industrial action will not be escalated but will continue in its current form. Fórsa members in the Civil Service Division will be advised not to take on any work that would normally be done by school secretaries for the duration of the dispute," he said.

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.

Irish companies that pilot or introduce a four-day working week will be able to seek support from 4DWI (Four Day Week Ireland), a new coalition of businesses, unions, environmentalists, academics and NGOs established to campaign for shorter working time in all sectors of the economy. The initiative, which is the Irish leg of an international campaign to establish a four-day week without reductions in pay or productivity, was launched in Dublin last Thursday.

The new coalition said reduced working time is better for business, better for workers, better for women, and better for the environment. It received widespread media coverage after a very positive public reaction.

4DWI said it would seek an early dialogue with Government and opposition parties “to explore how Ireland’s largest single employer can encourage a reduction in working hours across the economy” by example.

4DWI pledged to promote the concept of a four-day week with Irish businesses and offer support to those who trial the approach by drawing on the experience of companies like Galway-based recruitment firm ICE and New Zealand’s Perpetual Guardian, which are already reaping the benefits of introducing a four-day week for their staff.

The coalition says there are three routes to achieving the four-day week:

1. Good business leadership, combined with market and labour market factors, which will increase the attraction of the four-day week to more and more companies;

2. The reduction of working time, without loss of pay or productivity, through negotiations between management and unions in organisations where collective bargaining takes place;

3. Government as a large employer leading by example, supporting private companies that introduce reduced working time, and legislating where appropriate.

The launch was addressed by Andrew Barnes, founder of New Zealand trustee services company Perpetual Guardian, which won international acclaim when it introduced a four-day week for its 250 staff last year. He said: “The evidence is in. A productivity-focused workplace can achieve the outcome of working less hours. I encourage business to look at the initiative for themselves. It is clear to me this is the future of work.”

Kevin Callinan, general secretary of Fórsa, the first Irish trade union to back the four-day week, said working time had emerged as a central issue in international debates about the future of work. “We want to secure a fairer share of the benefits of economic growth and technological advances for all workers in all sectors of the economy. This would also have the benefit of sharing paid work as technology reduces its availability,” he said.

Other speakers on the day included representatives from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Galway firm ICE, Maynooth University, the National Women’s Council and Friends of the Earth.

See HERE for the full story.

Fórsa has secured an agreement on the engagement of a facilitator to assist with the design of the new higher education job evaluation scheme. A tender for this work has now issued to interested parties.

Fórsa has also secured an agreement, through the WRC, establishing a joint process for rolling out an agreed new organisational design for each of the 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs). This engagement will enable unions to negotiate staff numbers and grade levels in a consistent manner across the sector.

Fórsa seeks abolition of the ‘72 hours’ obligation  

Fórsa has lodged a formal claim for the abolition of the obligation for SNAs to be available to work an additional 72 hours per annum to the Department of Education and Skills (DES).

Head of Education Andy Pike said the justification for the claim is the wide-scale abuse of the provision by local schools: “The 72 hours should be used as a flexible bank of hours that can be deployed on SNA appropriate work as the need arises.

“Instead, too many employers force SNAs to undertake demeaning and menial tasks that are not related to their role nor to the care or education of students.

“While local intervention can be effective, Fórsa needs to seek a national solution to the problem of the abuse of these hours. The first step is to press for the removal of the hours from the agreed conditions of service,” he said.

New qualification level for SNAs sought

Fórsa has submitted a formal claim for a new educational requirement for all new SNA posts to the DES.

The claim seeks the insertion of a relevant QQI Level 6 qualification (or equivalent experience) as essential criteria for employment as a new SNA.

Andy explained: “This would reflect the preferences of local employers who often seek a Level 6 qualification and will not appoint a new SNA unless they at least hold a Level 5 QQI award.

“This claim therefore seeks to increase the current educational standard required to become an SNA from the existing two passes at Junior Certificate, to a qualification that adequately reflects the skills and expertise required from an SNA,” he said.

SNA redundancy calculation

Fórsa has submitted claim seeking to protect all service as an SNA for the purposes of calculating redundancy payments. Currently, an SNA can be made redundant if hours or jobs are reduced at the start of each school year.

Andy said: “They have the option of taking a redundancy payment or seeking redeployment. If they are successfully redeployed the risk of redundancy arises again at the start of the next school year.  We want to protect all service as an SNA for the purposes of calculating redundancy payments.”

Schools Inclusion Model

Discussions continue on the level of the suggested new national qualification for SNAs.

Regional meetings have been scheduled for the autumn to update members across the country.

The new ‘frontloading allocation’ model resulted in 29 new posts within the 75 Pilot schools and if rolled out nationally would provide three years employment security for SNAs.

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.