Fórsa has secured an agreement with the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform that will see all maternity-related illness automatically discounted when a person is being considered for promotion.

Earlier this year the union pursued claims aimed at improving several pregnancy and maternity-related issues for civil service workers and, sought for a circular to issue to declare that certified maternity-related sick leave will be discounted.

Fórsa official Seán Carabini explained that when a person is promoted in the civil service their sick leave record is assessed to ensure that the person will be capable of regular and effective service.

“There are several considerations that may be given to discounting sick leave. Up until now, while the rules governing sick leave when a person is being considered for promotion allowed for maternity-related sick leave to be discounted, they were discretionary. This new change in policy will see maternity related sick leave automatically discounted for promotional purposes,” he said.

Seán warmly welcomed the news and cited it as a “good win” for members.

“This change in policy originally came from a motion at our 2022 Fórsa Biennial Delegate Conference. The Revenue Clerical branches called for pregnancy-related sick leave to be discounted for promotional purposes and we have worked hard to deliver on this for members. The policy change now automatically discounts maternity related sick leave for promotion. It is a good win and a welcome change,” he said.

The Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform has issued Circular 13/2023 to record this change.

Fórsa has raised concerns about the increasing incidents of aggression faced by front office members and Department of Social Protection (DSP) customers across the Intreo Centre (IC) network, which consists of over 60 centres, during recent Departmental Council and Department of Social Protection (DSP) Health and Safety committee meetings.

The combination of staff vacancies, long queues, the cost-of-living crisis, and customer inquiries about delayed payments has escalated the potential for verbal and physical abuse towards staff and other customers. While only a small minority of DSP customers are engaging in such behaviour, it has a corrosive impact on staff morale.

Paul MacSweeney, Assistant General Secretary with responsibility for members in the DSP, highlighted the need for a safe working environment for frontline staff. He stressed the importance of prioritising the filling of IC vacancies by DSP and, in the meantime, reducing the unsustainable workloads faced by members: “Fórsa's concern is, above all, for the health and safety of our members. To that end, the union has continued to communicate with management at the Department of Social Protection, and to propose measures that would take some of the pressure off the staff there.

“The current situation is unsustainable. In the continuing context of insufficient staff numbers, there are tangible health and safety risks, both for the staff working there and for service users attending the office.

He continued, “Our frontline members should be able to go about their working day in a safe working environment and that is not what members are reporting to us.

“The filling of vacancies in ICs needs to be prioritised by DSP and in the interim unsustainable workloads experienced by our members must be reduced. The opening hours of ICs will need to be examined and limited until the majority of vacancies are filled.”

The unfilled vacancies have also led to the suspension of work-life-balance initiatives such as blended working and greater restrictions on taking annual leave. Members have advised Fórsa that apart from workplace stress they are moving to other civil and public sector employers in their areas because they offer greater opportunities to balance their life and work commitments.

The work environment will remain challenging for our Clerical Officers, Executive Officers, Intreo Centre Managers, Community Welfare Officers, Service Officers, and other IC staff until the filling of vacancies is prioritised, staffing levels are increased to reflect IC caseload, and more robust protocols are agreed to give better protection to frontline staff and adequately penalise anti-social behaviour.

Fórsa is set to table a claim to seek to bring pay parity across the legal profession in the civil service, due to a “two-tier” approach to pay for workers.

Fórsa official Seán Carabini explained that, currently, there are significant anomalies in the civil service for legal professionals, depending on the areas of work.

“If you are a solicitor working in areas such as the Legal Aid Board or IHREC, you can be on a pay scale that stops some €25k short of the legal professional pay scales available in places such as the DPP or the CSSO. Despite requiring the same qualifications, specialisms and carrying similar caseloads, the state has chosen to pay a lesser amount to legal professionals working in some areas,” he said.

Fórsa has tried to resolve this issue locally, but to date has been unsuccessful, as the authority to engage on this matter rests not with each employment, but with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

“There is an inequity that needs to be resolved. Now that items such as mobility schemes for legal professionals are under discussion, and that we have exhausted all local avenues of resolution, it is time to formally bring this matter to the attention of Public Expenditure and Reform to see if it is possible to make progress,” explained Seán.

Seán stressed that areas such as the Legal Aid Board and IHREC do important work for the state and workers need to be paid appropriately.

“The state needs to ensure that it brings an end to the current two-tier pay approach for these important roles and use the State Solicitor pay scale as the common pay scale for all solicitors working on its behalf,” he said.

The Fórsa Skills Academy is the home for all of Fórsa’s training and development initiatives, offering you the practical training you need. We have training at all levels running in the months ahead. Take a look and sign up for the one that suits you best.

Fórsa 101 - New Members Information Session

Fórsa 101 is a short information session which takes place completely online. It’s a great way for new members to better understand the structure of the Union, how it works and how to get more involved.

The next sessions will be held on Wednesday, 11th October - one in the morning at 9:30am and one that evening at 6pm. The sessions will be between 2 to 2 1/2 hours long.

*Special Note to SNAs - due to issues in relation to release from the Department of Education for some courses, SNAs should only apply for the evening course.

Those interested in attending must complete the online application form here. The closing date for registration is: Friday 29th September 2023 at 13:00.

Foundational Workplace Representative Training programme

The Foundational Workplace Representative Training programme is a three-day course for newly elected workplace representatives, or those with less than 2 years representative experience and who have never received Fórsa training previously (except for the Fórsa101 information session). It covers all the basic skills and information that new representatives require to have confidence in the role and get through the first year.

Topics include:

• Branch structure and roles of the Executive Committee
• The role and responsibilities of the Workplace Representative
• Organising and recruiting members
• An introduction to Health and Safety
• An overview of Equality in the Trade Union agenda
• Industrial Relations, handling members' problems and local representation

This is an essential first course for any members undertaking a representative role and is offered in 7 locations throughout the country. Applications will close when the courses have been filled in each location.

Upcoming Foundational training dates:

Tuesday 26th - Thursday 28th September Galway

Tuesday 24th - Thursday 26th October Cork

Tuesday 28th - Thursday 30th November Limerick

Tuesday 27th - Thursday 29th February Sligo

Tuesday 26th - Thursday 28th March Wexford town (Local Trade Union Centre)

Tuesday 23rd - Thursday 25th April Woodford, Santry, Dublin.

You can register for the Foundational Workplace Representative Training programme HERE.

Expanded Workplace Representative Training programme

The Expanded Workplace Representative Training programme is open to those who have more than 2-3 years’ experience in the role of Workplace Representative and have NOT RECEIVED ANY training previously.

The first module focuses on Organising, on day 1 and Industrial Relations on day 2, and takes place on consecutive days on the first week of the month from September through April (except December), across all locations. The specific dates and locations are listed on application form and we would ask applicants to choose the nearest location to them to ensure as many representatives as possible gain access to these courses.

There are also two specialised modules, on Health and Safety, and on Equality. Workplace Representatives and Branch Executive Officers with these specific responsibilities are eligible to apply (provided they have not undertaken this training previously). The dates of these courses are also listed on the application form.

You can register to attend the expanded training programme here.

Upcoming Expanded training dates:

Wednesday 4th - Thursday 5th October 2023 Local Trade Union Centre, Wexford Town

Wednesday 1st - Thursday 2nd November 2023 Sligo

Wednesday 10th - Thursday 11th January 2024 Nerney's Court, Dublin

Wednesday 7th - Thursday 8th February 2024 Limerick

Wednesday 6th - Thursday 7th March 2024 Cork

Wednesday 3rd - Thursday 4th April 2024 Galway

Dear members,

We are now little more than two weeks away from Budget Day 2024. While the Government will be keen to unveil a financial package that improves its standing with the electorate, the Budget must respond to the continuing challenge of inflation.

Fórsa’s priority is to make sure that the Budget, and upcoming public pay talks, bridge the gap between wages and accumulated inflation.

As every Fórsa member will know, inflation has continued to erode our household spending power in 2023. Every household feels it. In back-to-school costs, groceries, fuel and other basics.

While the rate of inflation has recently shown signs of easing, the cost of living keeps going up, and the value of the money in our pockets can’t keep up.

The most recently published inflationary figures further reveal that, despite being introduced to curb inflation, rising mortgage interest rates are helping to fuel inflation. This means that rising mortgage interest rates have combined with continuing corporate profiteering to erode wages.

Union-negotiated pay deals - including the 2022 review of the Building Momentum public service pay deal - have played a vital role in meeting this challenge, but there remains a gap of close to 10% between wages and accumulated inflation over the past three years.

While the parties of Government have been keen to publicly dangle the prospect of tax cuts in recent weeks, it’s highly unlikely that any such measures will make much of an impression on household incomes, while inflation would quickly wipe out their value.

If the warnings about a possible fall in corporation tax receipts were to be realised, any cuts in income tax or USC may turn out to be temporary.

In any case we can see the need for more spending on services like housing, health and education. Our growing population requires more investment in most public services including childcare and social protection. Improvements that reduce the need to pay or to obtain services privately can help with the cost of living.

At the Labour Employer Economic Forum I have made it clear to the Taoiseach and other senior members of Government that the withdrawal of supports, such as the household energy credit, will place even more pressure on wage bargaining to make good the losses.

It is clear that new pay deals that address the impact of inflation on workers in the public and private sectors will be required to prevent a long-term decline in living standards.

Fórsa expects pay talks, on a successor to the Building Momentum public service pay agreement, to commence in the coming weeks, and we will continue to update you on that process as it develops.

Fórsa’s commitment is to continue to win positive results on behalf of its members. We’ve delivered our message to Government on what Budget 2024 must include to address the gap between inflation and current wages. In entering national pay talks, we are determined to ensure any remaining gap is closed.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours,

Kevin Callinan

General Secretary.

There’s never been a better time to join a union, and it’s never been easier. Join Fórsa today.

Fórsa’s Skills Academy will host its next Lunch & Learn on Friday 29th September from 1–2pm on the topic of Menopause health and you can sign up here.

This month’s live Lunch and Learn is a great opportunity for members to gain a better understanding of menopause health. We are delighted to welcome guest speaker Dr Caoimhe Hartley, as our guest speaker this month.

Dr Caoimhe is a GP and specialist in women’s health and menopause accredited by the British Menopause Society and the North American Menopause Society. She is also the Clinical Lead of the Complex Menopause Clinic in the Rotunda Hospital and the Founder and Clinical Lead of Menopause Health in Dalkey, Co Dublin. She also serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the European Menopause Society.

The aim of the Skills Academy Lunch & Learn series is to provide members with the knowledge to support them as union members or representatives whilst supplementing the broad range of training programmes currently being offered by Skills Academy. Whilst these sessions are predominantly for information, there will be opportunities for participants to ask questions via the chat function.

Closing date to register for this session is Wednesday, 27th September, at 1pm.

You can register to attend the one-hour lunchtime session here.

Fórsa has recently donated €1,000 to the Wexford Marine Watch (WMW), a voluntary organisation which provides suicide prevention patrols along Wexford quays, estuary and harbour.

WMW is a registered charity established in December 2012 with the primary purpose to contribute to suicide prevention by identifying and intercepting vulnerable people who may be in difficulty before they harm themselves, by giving them immediate support and to get them to safety as soon as possible.

Previously, in tragic instances, many people in difficulty were not intercepted in time and those who entered the water got swept away by the very strong tidal flows in the harbour. This often resulted in drawn out lengthy searches by voluntary agencies, sometimes for weeks or even months, increasing distress & heartbreak for the families, relatives, search teams, and the wider community.

Fórsa Assistant General Secretary, Paul Moyer, who is a volunteer with the WMV, thanked Fórsa and its members for making this donation: “It is your membership fees that will directly impact in a positive way the communities, families, friends, and work colleagues who rely on Wexford Marine Watch. The donation will be put towards the running, training, and operations of the organisation.”

He added “The Wexford Marine Watch are extremely appreciative of the generous donation from Fórsa. Members across all divisions will benefit from this.”

There’s never been a better time to join a union, and it’s never been easier. Join Fórsa today.

If any branch would like to donate to the Wexford Marine Watch they can do so by contacting Paul at pmoyer@forsa.ie.

Fórsa has teamed up with Cornmarket to offer our members a fantastic opportunity to win a family holiday.

Details of the competition and information about the Fórsa Salary Protection Scheme, which is administered by Cornmarket and underwritten by New Ireland Assurance Company, are detailed here.

The Fórsa Salary Protection Scheme offers Fórsa members income protection, and various other benefits, in the event that they become too unwell to work. The benefits of the scheme are significant, and the cover is only available to workers who are Fórsa members.

To help publicise the benefits of the scheme, Cornmarket are giving away a €2,500 holiday voucher for Center Parcs. So, take a few minutes to read up on the benefits available to you and enter the competition by clicking here before it closes on 30th September 2023.