The joint union campaign by Fórsa and SIPTU to protect local employment services (LES) and job clubs stepped up a gear this week with daily lunchtime protests alternating between the Social protection minister’s office and the offices of Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.

Unions continue to campaign against a Government-imposed tendering process for LES and job clubs, which they say favours for-profit providers over the current community-focussed, not-for-profit service.

Unions have told Government that privatisation, job losses and a diminished employment service are likely unless it changes course.

Fórsa official Lynn Coffey said the protests were organised to maintain political pressure until unions could confirm that the department will implement last week’s private member’s motion resolving to “suspend all plans to tender out employment services” and the creation of “a stakeholder forum.”

The motion, by Claire Kirrane TD, was unopposed by the Government and adopted by the Dáil. The unions wrote to minister Heather Humphries last Friday (3rd December) asking her to confirm that her department would implement the motion.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee for Social Protection has already recommended that local employment services and job clubs should be retained in their current format. The report is to be considered by the Oireachtas.

Meanwhile, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee has said the Department of Social Protection’s JobPath model of jobseekers assistance, which was introduced in 2014, had not delivered value for money. It said the controversial scheme “did not lead to sustainable employment for jobseekers” in most cases.

The PAC has recommended that the department explore “other avenues to provide better value through localised, non-profit driven employment services.”