Fórsa’s backed a motion at the Services and Enterprises divisional conference in Sligo last week, calling for any variation and improvements on the terms of the current public service agreement to be applied to all public servants irrespective of the sector in which they work.

Proposing the motion on behalf of the union’s divisional executive committee, Steve Pilgrim said: “Like everyone else we are keen to ensure that any variation or improvements secured by any group covered by the agreement must be extended to all public servants, regardless of what sector they’re working in.

“Recent developments, including confirmation that the PSSA is capable of dealing with grade claims, are of keen interest to many members working in state agencies,” he said.

Head of Division Angela Kirk said the division’s motions to conference reflect the wider concern among Fórsa members about pay movement and organisation: “We’re seeing very positive pay movement for our members in the private sector and commercial semi state.

“The Private Sector Committee of Congress set a target this year of 3.4% pay increases. In setting this rate Congress was mindful of the excessive and escalating costs of housing rental and childcare.

“Pay awards secured by Fórsa last year maintained pace with pay improvements elsewhere in the private sector and in the wider economy.

“The more recent developments with the PSSA agreement are significant and a frequent topic of debate within the union,“ she said.

The conference motion instructs the incoming divisional executive to “maintain vigilance of the current agreement as it applies across the public service to ensure parity of treatment.”

Fórsa’s Senior General Secretary Designate Kevin Callinan told delegates at each of the union’s divisional conferences this year that his proposal for a mid-term review of the current public service agreement would be an opportunity to reconsider the underlying assumptions of the agreement, and to take account of lost spending power, recent and projected growth rates, and pay movements in the wider economy.

Kevin said public service agreements should also allow for individual grade claims to respond to enhanced responsibilities, higher qualification requirements, additional skills and increased productivity.

Delegates at Fórsa’s Services and Enterprises conference in Sligo last week were told that the ‘gig economy’ has created a field of employment governed by developing technology but there’s a substantial risk that workers are being re-directed to models of past exploitation.

Speaking to a conference motion from the union’s Cabin Crew branch, calling for the union to commission research into the potential impact of the gig economy on its members, Fórsa Assistant General Secretary Ashley Connolly said recent legislation to protect workers on insecure contracts was welcome but that challenges remain for employment law to keep pace with changes in the economy and the workforce.

Ashley told delegates: “Globalisation and technology has long since changed the parameters of the environment in which we work. The emerging trend in freelance work has been facilitated by a rapid development in technology.

“There are now a wide range of platforms hosting these services, connecting consumers with individual service providers through smartphone apps. The development of these apps has had a disruptive effect on traditional models of work and the service they provide are hailed as revolutionary.

“But, while the developers are hailed as futurist visionaries, the type of work on offer - and the manner in which the employment relationship is managed – is closer in form to the piecework and sweatshops of the 19th Century garment trade.

Protection

“Technology is pointing forward, but there is a substantial risk that workers are being re-directed to models of past exploitation. There’s no future in reducing employment to a high tech sweatshop.

“Let’s not forget - when you strip it all back - somebody somewhere is required to ensure that all this fantastic technology can operate,” she said.

Ashley said that, left unchecked, the development of app-controlled piecework would be bad for the economy, incur a loss of revenue to the Exchequer and create instability for workers who could no longer rely on a fixed income, with no protections or benefits.

She said the union has seen the erosion of full-time permanent roles in favour of seasonal employment in the aviation industry as part of a growing trend for the casualisation of work.

“Some contracts are now “fly only” contracts. As the name suggests, the employee is only paid if they actually fly, they're not compensated for ground duties or standby,” she said.

Ashley said the union needed to be able to strike a balance between facilitating flexible working conditions and protecting employees from exploitation, ensuring protection for all workers regardless of the employment relationship.

Ten national political parties, who between them fielded over 1,000 candidates in last week’s local elections, have signed up to a trade union pledge to increase local authority funding and restore local council powers in areas like housing, water and environmental protection.

The figure rises to over 1,100 when independents, and individual signatories whose national party didn’t back the pledge, are included.

The ‘Local Power Pledge’ was endorsed at national level by Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, the Green Party, People Before Profit, Solidarity, Independents 4 Change, Aontú and the Workers Party. Almost 300 (290) candidates also signed the pledge individually, including 15 Fine Gael candidates and 52 Independents.

The pledge is part of the ‘More Power To You’ campaign for enhanced local democracy and community services, which was launched by Fórsa, Siptu and Connect in March. Between them, the three unions represent over 30,000 local council workers.

The unions called for substantially increased revenue and funding powers for local authorities after they published research that shows Irish councils have less autonomy from central government than their counterparts in 39 European countries. Their ‘More Power To You’ campaign also calls for legislative changes to facilitate directly-elected mayors and restore and expand town councils, which were abolished in 2014.

Fórsa Director of Campaigns Joe O’Connor, who has coordinated the campaign, said the overwhelming response demonstrated a hunger for stronger local democracy among citizens and their elected representatives.

“The fact that only 8% of Irish public spending occurs at local government level, compared to an EU23 average of over 23%, is compounding shortcomings in services as diverse as housing, water, waste and sustainable domestic energy use,” he said.

Prior to launching the campaign in March, the unions commissioned research from Dr Mary Murphy of Maynooth University. It found that Irish local authorities perform fewer functions than municipalities across Europe.

Her report, Democracy Works If You Let It, said Irish local democracy had been eroded by austerity-era budget cuts and staff reductions; the centralisation of services like water, driving licences and higher education grants; the privatisation of services like refuse collection and housing; and excessive executive direction and new management processes that have increased bureaucratic powers at the expense of political representatives.

Three of the national parties that signed the pledge did so with slight caveats. Fianna Fáil does not support the reintroduction of public provision of domestic waste services. The Workers’ Party and Solidarity do not support directly-elected mayors.

Read more about the More Power To You campaign HERE. 

The standard domestic subsistence ‘day rates’ paid to civil servants who are out of the office on business are to increase by 10% from July. But overnight rates will remain the same.

The ‘five hour rate’ will increase from €14.01 to €15.41, while the ‘ten-hour rate’ goes up from €33.61 to €36.97.

The changes come on foot of a regular union-management review of the rates, which takes account of inflation in cafes, restaurants, takeaways and fast food outlets, plus – for the overnight rate only – accommodation costs.

No increase is sanctioned if the relevant consumer price index-measured increases come in below 5%. This accounts for the lack of movement on overnight rates because inflation in accommodation costs – which make up the lion’s share of the calculation – were relatively low.

Fórsa official Billy Hannigan, who represents the union in the process, said he would now ask management to prepare a draft agreed report for adoption by the civil service general council. This will give effect to the increases, which will then be applied across the public service.

A new circular on ‘starting pay on promotion’ will see the end of the practice of civil servants ‘marking time’ on pay scales after winning promotion. The new arrangement will also introduce a more simplified approach to starting pay on promotion across the civil service.

Circular 08/2019 also provides for incremental progression for those who join the civil service from an analogous public service grade.

Fórsa’s civil service division head, Derek Mullen, said a difficult negotiation had seen the simplification and replacement of a circular dating back to the 1970s. “The outcome sees the abolition of marked time for large numbers of civil servants who are standing still on pay scales, and who will now see incremental progression.”

The union wasn’t able to reach similar agreement for staff entering the civil service from non-analogous public services grades. This issue will now be determined at arbitration.

The number of civil and public servants reached 330,500 in 2018. This is above the previous peak of recent times, which was reached in 2009.

The biggest number (118,000) were employed in the health services, followed by education (107,000). There were 38,000 civil servants, 28,000 local authority employees and 13,700 working in non-commercial semi-state organisations.

The figures are set out in the Public Service Performance Report, 2018, which was published earlier this month.

The report also shows gross current expenditure of €57 billion, plus €6 billion of capital expenditure last year.

An impressive list of public service outputs included 930,000 students in primary and post-primary education, 1.5 million people accessing health professional or community health services, and 333,000 benefit payments and over 600,000 pension payments each week.

Sector largely ‘left behind’ on pay restoration

Workers in the community and voluntary sector are still falling far behind pay movement elsewhere in the economy, as the effects of pay restoration measures in the public and private sector have not been applied consistently in the sector.

Fórsa’s Services and Enterprises conference in Sligo last week was told that community sector workers throughout the country continue to suffer all the pay reductions imposed during the financial crisis.

Proposing a motion to maintain support for workers in the sector, and to keep pay restoration high on the union’s agenda, David Orford of Dublin North West Area Partnership said: “Community sector workers are being left behind at a time when their colleagues elsewhere in the division and the wider civil and public service have had their pay restored through the PSSA.

“The manner in which these cuts applied have often far exceeded the FEMPI cuts that were applied in the public service and state funded agencies in the voluntary sector.

“Reduced working time was widely applied in the sector, while workers in the sector were expected to maintain their productivity despite the loss of one or two days of paid work each week.

“In some employments workers have seen their lost days restored, but the sector still falls far behind everyone else. As we approach full employment in a buoyant economy, the community sector risks losing talented and dedicated staff to employment in other sectors,” he said.

The conference motion said pay restoration efforts should be done in conjunction with other divisions such as health, where pay restoration remains an ongoing initiative for non-public servants who were subject to public service pay cuts.

National agreements

The union’s Health & Welfare conference last week backed a motion stating that the next round of public service pay talks should include talks on establishing “a structured, fair and sustainable funding model” for ‘Section 39’ agencies, which provide housing, disability and other services on behalf of the State.

Head of Division Angela Kirksaid: “Many members in the community sector remain subject to pay cuts, reduced working time and similar measures imposed during the economic crisis.

“Pay restoration for these members remains high on the agenda, and we’re encouraged by progress made by our colleagues in Health and Welfare with Section 39 agencies, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” she said.

Former Irish Congress of Trade Unions official, Esther Lynch has been elected Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Esther was elected to the top job last week by delegates at the 14th ETUC Congress in in Vienna, Austria. Voting delegates included general secretaries and presidents of some 90 national trade union organisations from 38 European countries.

The ETUC is the voice of workers and represents 45 million members from 90 trade union organisations in 38 European countries, plus 10 European Trade Union Federations.

Esther was ICTU’s Legislation and Social Affairs Officer between 1993 and 2015, before moving to the ETUC to take up the post of Confederal Secretary following her election at the 2015 Paris Congress.

Esther worked closely with one of Fórsa’s forerunner unions, IMPACT, on the development of protected disclosure (‘whistleblowers’) legislation and secured an advisory role for trade unions in the development of the Register of Lobbyists.

ICTU General Secretary, Patricia King, warmly welcomed Esther’s appointment to the four year Brussels-based post, and congratulated her personally after the vote.
Patricia said: “I was delighted to be among the first to offer my congratulations, and those of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, to Esther on her well-deserved appointment.

“The level of support that her candidacy received reflects the very high regard in which she is held across Europe.
“Esther was a superb choice with long experience of what the job involves. This is a great result for the 45 million workers who are members of ETUC-affiliated trade unions.”

Fórsa also extended congratulations to Esther on behalf of the union.

The ETUC aims to ensure that the EU is not just a single market for goods and services, but is also a social Europe, where improving the wellbeing of workers and their families is an equally important priority.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is set to launch a new policy document entitled “Realising the Transformative Effect of Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining in Ireland” at its all island Congress this July.

Speaking last week at the ETUC’s (European Trade Union Confederation) 14^th Congress in Vienna, Austria, ICTU official Owen Reidy said Congress is seeking to address Ireland’s collective bargaining deficit, one of its key proposals is to promote the idea of an EU Directive on Collective Bargaining.

“There is one fundamental issue that unites and binds all of us together is the universal right for working women and men to have the right to free collective bargaining in their work. Yet today in Ireland, all workers do not have this fundamental right.

“All the independent evidence shows that not only is collective bargaining good for workers in respect of their pay and conditions, but - it also boosts productivity, it improves efficiency, it improves workers wellbeing and it makes our societies and economies that bit more equal.

“You cannot truly have decent work without the right to collective bargaining,” he said.

He outlined the voluntary nature of industrial relations in Ireland to delegates and said: “Trade union density and collective bargaining coverage is in decline. We have to ask who does this model serve?”

Mr Reidy said it is in the interests of all European unions that workers right across the continent enjoy decent work, decent pay. “Without a right to collective bargaining, this cannot be achieved,” he said. He asked the assembled unions in Vienna to support and endorse the work of the ETUC to promote collective bargaining right across the EU.

The ETUC is the voice of workers and represents 45 million members from 90 trade union organisations in 38 European countries, plus 10 European Trade Union Federations.

The ETUC aims to ensure that the EU is not just a single market for goods and services, but is also a social Europe, where improving the wellbeing of workers and their families is an equally important priority.

You can read the full text of Owen Reidy’s speech to the European Congress HERE.

Fórsa was among the unions that backed the ‘School Strike for Climate’ demonstration in Dublin last Friday (May 24th). It was the second national protest led by secondary school students calling on the Government to take action to address the climate crisis.

The protest was one of hundreds staged by young people across Europe on the same day.

Merrion Square in Dublin hosted the largest protest, which was attended by around 3,000 people, and was supported by a number of civil society bodies.

Among the Fórsa representatives attending the march were members of the union’s new just transition network, which held its first meeting prior to the demonstration.

Discussions at the just transition network meeting focussed on the development of a climate change strategy for Fórsa, how to inform members about the union’s work on climate change and encouraging greener workplaces.

Protests took place around the country, with the second-largest outside Cork City Hall. A number of schools also held smaller events in solidarity with a global day of action led by the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

See related HERE.

The Retired Members Group attended the recent conferences in Kilkenny and Sligo and we were very encouraged by the responses we received from delegates.

We distributed a substantial number of application forms and information packs.

All the information shared at the conferences is located on our dedicated page at forsa.ie.

The Retired Members Group will be in further contact with branches in the near future to keep members informed.

President Michael D Higgins signed the Parental Leave (Amendment) Bill 2017 into law last week.

The new legislation increases unpaid parental leave from 18 weeks to 26 weeks. It will be implemented on a phased basis, with an extra four weeks in the first year and the second four weeks in year two.

The qualifying age of children has also been extended from eight to 12.

Parents who have already taken some or all of the current 18 weeks’ leave and who have children up to 12 years of age are permitted to take the extra eight weeks.