Local authority staff are due a 1% pay increase with effect from 1st January 2018, under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) negotiated by Fórsa and other public service unions. The next instalment of the deal, which was backed by members of the three unions that recently amalgamated to create our new union, will see a further 1% adjustment in October.

The pay adjustments are due to Fórsa members in the Municipal Employees division and Local Authority and Local Services division, along with other civil and public servants. In total, the PSSA will deliver income restoration worth over 7% of salary to more than 70% of public servants between now and 2020.

Late last year, a timetable for the full abolition of FEMPI legislation, which underpinned public service pay cuts and pension levies, was officially outlined with the publication of the Public Service Pay and Pensions Bill. This also gave effect to the provisions of the PSSA.

Fórsa senior general secretary Shay Cody said the legislation was a landmark in the union campaign to restore incomes, which were cut by an average of around 14% under FEMPI during the recession.

“This legislation underpins the pay adjustments agreed in the PSSA deal, including a 1% increase due now. More significantly, it establishes a legal timetable for the dismantling of the hated FEMPI legislation. This is what Fórsa and other unions have been working for since the pension levy was first imposed on public servants in 2009,” he said.
 
The PSSA will see pay lost through ‘FEMPI’ legislation restored to more than 90% of public servants – those earning up to €70,000 a year – by the end of 2020. Almost all the rest will see full pay restoration within a further two years.
 
It also preserves the value of public service pensions, while taking almost a quarter of public servants out of FEMPI pension levy provisions by 2020. This will be done by increasing the pension levy ceiling from €28,750 to €34,500 for all staff except those who benefit from ‘fast accrual’ pension arrangements. This will be worth a total of €575 per year.
 
Any remaining pension levy will be converted into a ‘pension related deduction’ (PRD). Staff who joined the public service on or after 1st January 2013 will pay a smaller additional contribution, reflecting the fact that their pension benefits are different to the schemes applying to those who joined before that date.
 
The legislation repeals the 2009 FEMPI Act with effect from 1st January 2018. It also repeals section 2(3) of the 2009 FEMPI No.2 Act – the legislation that reduced fixed periodic allowances by 5% – from 1st October 2020. Section 5(1) of the 2009 Act is also repealed from January 2021, which will allow the Labour Court and WRC to consider ‘cost-increasing claims’ from that date.

PSSA income adjustments

• 1st January 2018: 1% pay adjustment
• 1st October 2018: 1% pay adjustment
• 1st January 2019: Pension levy threshold up from €28,750 to €32,000 (worth €325pa)
• 1st January 2019: 1% pay adjustment for those earning less than €30,000
• 1st September 2019: 1.75% pay adjustment
• 1st January 2020: Pension levy threshold increased to €34,500 (worth €250pa)
• 1st January 2020: 0.5% pay increase for those earning less than €32,000
• 1st October 2020: 2% pay adjustment

The final piece of the Fórsa jigsaw was put in place on 2nd January, when the Registrar for Friendly Societies confirmed that the new union was registered and cleared to start work on behalf of more than 80,000 members. The registrar is the statutory regulator for trade unions.

The new union launched with a brand new visual identity, and with strong backing from the members of the three organisations – the CPSU, IMPACT, and the PSEU – which had put in over two years’ work to make the amalgamation happen.

Those three unions effectively ceased to exist once the merger was sanctioned after a six-week statutory period that followed ballots, which strongly endorsed the move.

Fórsa now collectively represents workers across the civil and public services, commercial and non-commercial semi-state organisations, the community and voluntary sector, and private companies in aviation, telecommunications and elsewhere.

We are the second largest union in the country, and the strongest and most influential trade union voice in the Irish public service and semi-state sector.

After pooling the resources of the three former unions, Fórsa is also financially stronger, with €85 million in assets including a €50 million dispute fund. So, while members’ subscriptions are unchanged, the new organisation offers an enhanced range of financial benefits and free helplines.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), which brings together organisations with a combined membership of over 800,000, described the arrival of Fórsa as “highly significant and very positive for the Irish trade union movement.”

Its general secretary Patricia King said: “Fórsa provides a strong new voice for workers across a range of areas, and it will also enhance the capacity and effectiveness of the wider trade union movement across the island.”

Fórsa and other ICTU unions have raised concerns about the future public ownership of water services with local government minister Eoghan Murphy. At a meeting with the minister last month, Fórsa national secretary Peter Nolan also said unions would resist any attempt to force local authority staff to move to Irish Water on foot of management proposals to create a single water authority.

Minister Murphy has since told the unions that his Government broadly supports Irish Water management’s proposal to create the single authority.

The unions told the minister that constitutional safeguards were needed to ensure that water services stayed in public ownership, in line with the declared policy of all Irish political parties. Nolan said a timetable for a referendum was necessary as “the prospect of a single entity being set up in a commercial guise is only one remove away from privatisation.”

While the minister confirmed the Government’s commitment to a referendum, he said he could not offer a timescale. The ICTU unions will meet on 5th February to consider their response.

The unions also met Irish Water management and told them that few, if any, staff were willing to move their employment. Management said it would give a more detailed briefing to unions later this month.

Fórsa also plans to meet representatives of the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), which represents local authority employers, to establish their views on the proposal. A finalised union position will then be ready to present to other parties, including Oireachtas parties, next month. 

These meetings were arranged after Irish Water confirmed its intention to create a single water agency and employer by 2021, four years before the expiry of current service level agreements with local authorities. Fórsa and other unions are opposed to this new structure as it threatens employment and increases the risk of future privatisation.

They are calling for a constitutional referendum to prevent the formation of the new entity and ensure that water services remain under public control.

Public servants who want to revert to ‘pre-Haddington Road’ working hours – with a pro-rata salary reduction – can apply to do so between now and April 2018. The opportunity, which was negotiated by Fórsa as part of the Public Services Stability Agreement (PSSA), will then close before briefly reopening between January and April 2021.

Staff who opt to revert to the shorter working week have to do so permanently. And applications are subject to the ‘business needs’ of the organisation they work in.

During last year’s talks on the PSSA, the union sought a return to pre-2011 hours for all. But the employers were adamant that they would not do a deal that restored working time lost under previous agreements. Fórsa officials repeatedly raised the issue, but the other side wouldn’t budge.

The current provisions fall short of the unions’ ambition, but they at least give options to staff whose circumstances mean time is more important to them than money.

Fórsa’s Municipal Employees’ division has seen off outsourcing in Dublin City Council’s litter warden service. The council has agreed that external contractors will no longer be used to undertake the duties of litter wardens.

The union used protections in the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) to win the deal. Lorcan Connolly, of the Fórsa Muno committee, argued that the use of contractors was a breach of the agreement’s restrictions on outsourcing. Management has agreed to remind line managers of their obligations under the agreement, to ensure that the core work of litter wardens is done by council staff.

This is not the first time the division has used the provisions of the national deal, and earlier agreements, to prevent outsourcing. Previous successes were secured in the parks and caretaker services.

The PSSA commits management to consultation on any outsourcing proposals, and contains strict independent mechanisms to deal with disputes. Crucially, the agreement also stops management from including labour costs in evaluations of potential outsourcing, which prevents a ‘race to the bottom’ on pay and working conditions.

Fórsa has deferred industrial action planned in Roscommon after the county council accepted a Labour Court clarification on flexitime in the authority. The implementation body, which oversees compliance with the Public Service Stability Agreement and its forerunners, has since appointed a Workplace Relations Commission official to assist the implementation of the Court’s finding.

The Court said its recommendation was “intended to be understood as meaning that normal operational arrangements for flexible working schemes across the local authority sector should apply in this council.”

Last month, the union welcomed the Labour Court clarification, saying it completely supported and vindicated Fórsa’s position. It now says it's "cautiously optimistic" that the issue will be resolved.

“The flexi-time system is of most benefit to lower-paid workers, particularly women with childcare commitments. We were determined to resist any challenges to the scheme, and were not prepared to see Roscommon County Council staff left at a disadvantage relative to their colleagues elsewhere in the country,” said Fórsa official Padraig Mulligan.

An independent facilitator has supported Fόrsa’s contention that Dublin City Council changes to its insurance claims section constituted outsourcing, and were therefore a breach of the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA).

The union’s Dublin City branch is now engaging with council management regarding the recommendations of the independent facilitator, who was appointed on foot of a Workplace Relations Commission conciliation session.

The PSSA and earlier agreements include strong protections that limit employers’ ability to outsource public services. It commits management to consultation procedures and strict independent mechanisms to deal with disputes.

Crucially, the agreement also stops management from including labour costs in evaluations of potential outsourcing, which prevents a ‘race to the bottom’ on pay and working conditions.

Fόrsa’s Municipal Employees’ division has won a commitment that Dublin City Council will fill outstanding library attendant and mobile library driver posts, following a longstanding dispute. This follows increased pressure by the division’s library representatives. Interviews are now expected to take place soon.

Meanwhile, Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) talks on a series of disputes in the library service are continuing after resuming in late December, following a breakdown over promotional procedures for library assistants and senior library assistants.

Head of Fόrsa's local government division Peter Nolan said sufficient progress was made to allow the talks to cover the full range of issues affecting staff. These include staffing shortages, staffless libraries, qualifications and procurement.

Further WRC talks are taking place this month.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is seeking legal changes to make it easier for victims to report sexually abusive behaviour in the workplace. The move comes after months of intense focus on workplace sexual harassment in Ireland and across the globe.

Congress general secretary Patricia King has written to employment affairs minister Regina Doherty, saying that reports of workplace sexual misconduct should be treated as ‘protected disclosures,’ which could be made to external bodies like the Workplace Relations Commission or Health and Safety  Authority.

Under existing legislation, sexual harassment is categorised as a ‘grievance,’ which means workers must direct their complaints to employers. However, as Ms King points out in her letter: “very often the perpetrator can be the most senior-ranked person in the employment.”

Ms King said sexual harassment in the workplace pollutes the working environment. “It can have a devastating effect on the health, confidence, morale and performance of those affected by it,” she said.

Separately, Fórsa and other unions criticised a minister of state, whose discriminatory comments resulted in a €7,500 compensation award towards the end of last year. The case was taken by the PSEU, one of the unions that merged to form the new union.

During an interview for the post of private secretary to Minister John Halligan, the Waterford TD asked the candidate: “Are you a married woman? Do you have children? How old are your children?

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudication officer declared the comments discriminatory under equality legislation, after the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) took up the case.
Minister Halligan bizarrely claimed he had simply been championing “family friendly” work arrangements. In a statement, he also cited his inexperience at interviewing. “This was the first time I was conducting an interview of this sort and I did not realise that it was unacceptable to ask such a question,” he said. However, the candidate told the WRC that he had prefaced his question by saying: “I know I shouldn’t say this.”

The Government is to legislate to allow local council staff who are currently obliged to retire at age 65 to opt to stay in work longer. Once enacted, the law will give public servants recruited before 1st April 2004 the option to retire at any time up to age 70.

The new arrangements will benefit those who must currently retire at 65, but who depend on the state old age pension for part of their retirement income. They have faced a problem since the state pension age was increased from 65 to 66.

Public servants recruited after 1st April 2004 are not affected because they either have a retirement age of 70 already, or they have no compulsory retirement age.
 
Press reports last November predicted that the new measure would mean a compulsory increase in the retirement age for all civil and public servants. It does not.

Fórsa had been working to resolve the plight of public servants who are forced to retire at age 65, but who cannot access the state pension until they are 66. Discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform took place under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA), which was backed the union’s members in ballots last year.

Pending the enactment of legislation to introduce the change, unions and management have agreed limited interim arrangements to allow public servants who want to stay in work until the state pension age to be re-hired. Under these interim arrangements, staff can retire and receive their lump sum, before being re-hired in their current role.

However, they will be placed on the first point of the non-pensionable pay scale, and they will not make further pension contributions. Although this arrangement is not ideal, it means that public servants won’t be forced to retire before they are due payment of their full pension.

Fórsa joined a broad coalition of unions, and organisations campaigning for pensioners and women, in a demonstration on Wednesday (17th January) to demand the reversal of 2012 pension cuts, which fall hardest on women.

The coalition, which brings the union together with Age Action Ireland, Active Retirement Ireland, the National Women’s Council, the Irish Countrywomen’s Association and Siptu, has also sought an urgent meeting with social protection minister Regina Doherty.

The cabinet sub-committee on pensions discussed the issue yesterday (Wednesday).

It’s estimated that as many as 40,000 people – mostly women who left the workforce to rear children or care for others – have been hit by the changes, which mean state pension entitlements are based on an average of the contributions made during each year at work. Crucially, the methodology takes the first PRSI payment as the starting point for averaging, which can drastically reduce the annual average payment for workers who paid PRSI in part-time student jobs.

Those who took time out of the workforce to raise a family, or to care for relatives, after 1994 are not affected. But many of those currently reaching retirement left work before that year.

Fórsa and other coalition members wrote to Minister Doherty last month. “Though greatly disappointed that no measure to address this inequality was announced in October’s budget, we welcome your subsequent commitment to find a solution, and your plan to bring a proposal to cabinet,” they said.

Precarious working arrangements have now spread across the economy and feature increasingly in public administration, health and education, according to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

A new ICTU report, Insecure and Uncertain: Precarious Work in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, has revealed that 8% of the Republic’s workforce – or 158,190 people – see significant variations in their weekly or monthly working hours, while 7% of workers are in temporary employment, often because they can’t find permanent work.
 
The alarming growth in precarious work since 2008 has prompted ICTU to urge the Government to legislate to address the problem. It wants new laws to guarantee the right to a minimum number of working hours, and provide workers with a written statement of their terms and conditions from day one of their employment.

Last month, ICTU welcomed new legislation aimed at banning zero hours contracts in all cases except emergency cover, short-term relief work, or genuine casual work.
 
The Congress report shows a dramatic 34% rise in part-time work and self-employment, which ICTU says is “indicative of significant growth in bogus or false self-employment.”
 
The number of people in permanent full-time work is still over 100,000 lower than in 2008, despite significant growth in the total number of people in work. And over half of those in temporary employment say it’s because they can’t find permanent jobs – a 179% increase on the 2008 figure.
 
The study found that female and young workers were most likely to be stuck in precarious or insecure jobs. And, while precarious work is most common in distribution, hotels, catering, retail and construction, it also features increasingly in public administration, health and education.
 
ICTU general secretary Patricia King said the research confirmed the urgent need for legislation. “As the study clearly illustrates, the impact of precarious work extends well beyond the workplace and its unchallenged growth raises profound questions as to the type of society we wish to live in,” she said.
 
The study found that official policies like reducing employers’ PRSI on low-paid work had made it easier and more profitable to hire workers on insecure contracts. Yet these practices impact negatively on workers’ health, living standards, and ability to access secure accommodation. They also hit productivity and innovation, while reducing tax revenues for the state.