The 2014 IMPACT Gaeltacht scholarship scheme is now open for applications, with 80 grants of €150 each available to assist children of IMPACT members to attend Irish language courses in Gaeltacht areas this summer. The grants are for children aged between 11 and 18 on 1st July 2014. A completed application form must be received by IMPACT’s General Services Committee before 5.30pm on Friday 21^st March 2014. Click here for the form and scheme details.

A survey of more than 70 pay deals negotiated in the private sector over the last year has found that over 20,000 workers have benefitted from pay deals of up to 2% - with some as high as 3% - over a single year. The survey, by the respected journal Industrial Relations News, doesn’t include multi-year agreements struck before January 2013 which, it says, cover “many thousands” more, mostly in the manufacturing sector.

The authors Colman Higgins and Andy Prendergast say a 2% ‘benchmark’ was established in the pharmaceuticals and medical devices sectors. This is now rolling out to sectors like in retail and manufacturing. They say other deals have included pay pauses but, in many cases, once-off lump sums were agreed in return for these. Others included significant productivity items over and above the ‘normal ongoing change,’ which employers traditionally expect in exchange for pay increases.

IMPACT national secretary Matt Staunton, who leads for the union in commercial and private sector organisations, said the findings chime with his recent experience. “IMPACT has been negotiating modest pay deals in commercial and private companies that are able to pay. But this has invariably involved productivity measures or changes to pay structures,” he said.

The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) has asked IMPACT to give full details of the work that has been removed from Department of Agriculture technical grades, along with duties that should have been returned to them. LRC facilitators have also asked the department to outline a medium-term vision for the role of its technical staff, and identify any obstacles to achieving it.

Both sides met at the LRC earlier this week following the suspension of IMPACT’s industrial action in the row over the department’s treatment of agricultural officers. The process will reconvene on 10^th March, which gives each side time to do the work the LRC has sought.

At this week’s meeting, departmental officials said they had no wish to dismantle the technical officer role. The suspension of industrial action remains in place, although IMPACT has warned that disruption will resume if the issues are not resolved.

Half the households in Ireland have a disposable income of less than €35,000 a year, according to new research from the Nevin Economic Research Institute. Disposable income is the money left after tax is deducted from – and benefits added to – incomes.

The trade union-backed think tank also found that the top 10% of households have a disposable income of over €77,000 a year, while the richest 3% enjoy more than €2,000 per week, or €104,000 a year.

The research, by Nevin economist Micheál Collins, reveals that almost two-thirds of households live on a gross (pre-tax and benefit) income of less than €50,000 a year, while a third have a gross income of less than €27,000.

Representatives of the trade union-led Right to Water campaign packed the European Parliament this week as EU institutions were forced to hear their demands. The campaign was the first to gather over a million signatures under the EU’s ‘European Citizens Initiative,’ which obliges the European Commission to consider demands that attract enough signatures from a range of EU member states.

Campaign leaders also met European Commission vice-president and commissioner for inter-institutional relations and administration, Maroš Šefčovič, and representatives of several EU departments. The Commission now has until 20^th March to respond to the issues raised by the campaign.

Right to Water, instigated and led by the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), gathered more than 1.7 million signatures in favour of guaranteed public provision of water and sanitation services across Europe. IMPACT is one of 265 unions, representing over eight million public servants, affiliated to EPSU.

International concern is growing over the appalling working conditions of workers building infrastructure for the 2022 soccer World Cup in Qatar after it was confirmed that more than 500 Indian migrant workers have died in the country since January 2012.

Trade unions raised the issue in the European Parliament this week as unions, human rights groups and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) gave evidence about the need for union representation for migrant workers in the gulf state.


International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) general secretary Sharon Burrow told parliamentarians that Qatar was a slave state for 1.4 million migrant workers. “It doesn't have to be that way. Qatar chooses to build its modern nation with the labour of migrant workers and deliberately chooses to maintain a system that treats them as less than human,” she said.

The ITUC has estimated that up to 4,000 workers – a dozen a week – could be expected to die by the time a ball is kicked. Employers in Qatar have the legal right to withhold exit visas from the 1.3 million migrant workers drafted in to build World Cup stadiums and infrastructure. The resulting list of human rights violations includes excessive working hours, extreme heat with no access to drinking water, hazardous working conditions, workers going unpaid for months, the confiscation of passports, overcrowded labour camps, and a prohibition on joining or forming trade unions.

Last September, the Guardian newspaper reported that 44 Nepalese workers died of heart failure and workplace accidents in just one three-month period, after being forced to work in daytime heat of 50 degrees. Construction firms can easily replace them as thousands more desperate migrant workers are expected to flock to join the state’s construction frenzy before 2022.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has rejected trade union anger over the failure of ministers to raise human rights concerns on a recent trade trip to gulf states. He was responding to  an earlier complaint from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Workers at the giant Dutch flower auctioneers FloraHolland asked for your support earlier this month – and a wave of protest emails helped force their managers to negotiate on their demands. They have now suspended their strike.


The company blocked its email system after more than 6,000 protest messages flooded in. Unions say the blocked messages have been collected and will be conveyed to FloraHolland. In the meantime they thanked the many thousands of supporters – in Ireland and elsewhere – who responded to their appeal. Negotiations are now underway.

IMPACT’s campaign against the excessive hours worked by residential care staff has moved up a gear after unions lodged a formal complaint with the European Commission earlier this month. The union is also holding regional meetings in March to brief members on the case and build the campaign on the ground.

IMPACT and Siptu say excessive sleepover demands on residential care staff – who work with children, homeless people and people with disabilities – put the HSE and other health employers in breach of Irish and EU working time legislation. Many staff are expected to work 63-hour weeks, while payment for hours worked on so-called ‘sleepovers’ is below national minimum wage rate.

Now the unions have lodged a complaint with the European Commission, citing management’s continuing breaches of the EU working time directive, as well as its failure to implement recommendations from relevant European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings.

In 2002, the European Court of Justice ‘SIMAP’ judgment ruled that all time spent on-call must be regarded as working time if a worker was required to be at their place of employment. In these situations, it also ruled that workers should be paid overtime “where appropriate.” The following year, the ECJ’s ‘Jaeger’ judgment confirmed that this was the case even if workers could sleep when their services were not required.

The unions say management is flouting the Irish Organisation of Working Time Act, which put the EU legislation into Irish law. The Act says employees are entitled to a rest period of at least 11 consecutive hours in every 24-hour period. If this isn’t possible, they must be given compensatory rest periods at the end of their shift.

The Act also says staff are entitled to breaks of 15-minutes after working 4.5 hours, and 30 minutes after working six hours. Crucially, it also says staff should not work more than an average of 48 hours in any seven-day period.

The unions want sleepovers limited to one a week on average. If possible, they say this should be worked as part of the 39 hours set out in residential care workers’ contracts. Unions are also arguing that any work beyond 39 hours, including sleepovers, should be paid as overtime.  They say it is usual for staff to be actively working to provide care during some or all of the ‘sleepover’ period.

Management accept they are in breach of working time legislation, but extensive talks on the issue last year came to nothing. The unions subsequently referred the matter to the Labour Court, which earlier this month directed the parties to return to the LRC to try and resolve the issues no later than 31^st May.

IMPACT and other unions with members in Aer Lingus and the Dublin and Shannon airport authorities are meeting today (Friday) to discuss their next steps in the dispute over the Irish Aviation Superannuation Scheme (IASS), which covers staff in the three companies.

The meeting comes on foot of new proposals from IASS trustees to plug the scheme’s €800 million funding deficit. The proposals include using new legislation that allows cuts in payments to current pensioners for the first time.

The proposals for current workers – and former workers who have not yet retired – would see a 20% cut in pension benefits, although this would be significantly offset by the removal of earlier proposals to increase the retirement age and compulsory convert 25% of pension into lump sum at a very disadvantageous rate.

IMPACT has told its members working in the three companies to expect a ballot on “serious industrial action” in the near future if there is no resolution to the crisis. The union’s national secretary Matt Staunton says this is because of the employers’ failure to reach agreement on how to address the deficit.

Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority have both said they will put cash into a new defined benefit scheme for future service, with workers contributing to a resolution through reduced pension benefits. Unions say the proposed employer contribution – worth about €200 million – is not enough.

IMPACT’s Boards and Voluntary Agencies branch is seeking commitments to Dublin’s homelessness services from local election candidates in all four of the city’s local authorities.

The campaign – #lepledge14 – follows last month’s budget vote, in which Dublin City Council reversed proposed cuts of €6 million in the homelessness budget. Instead it found extra funds for homeless and disability services in the city. IMPACT was among the organisations that had called for a rethink on the proposed cuts ahead of the vote.

IMPACT official Ashley Connolly said councillors had done the right thing. “This is the first bit of good news for Dublin’s homeless services in several years, as cuts have been the norm since 2008. Redundancies, reduced hours and budget cuts have put enormous pressure on services. Now we need to keep fighting for homeless budgets to be maintained,” she said.

Ashley said the May local elections provided an opportunity for IMPACT members to seek a commitment from candidates in all four Dublin councils to protect homeless services budgets beyond 2014.

“IMPACT members need all candidates seeking election in May to understand how important it is to protect these services. The number of homeless people on Dublin’s streets continues to rise. We’re seeking a pledge from every candidate to protect the homeless services budget throughout the next local government term,” she said.

Read more on the campaign in Derek Beattie’s blog on the IMPACT website. And watch our #lepledge campaign video HERE.

IMPACT’s local government division has called a meeting of its branches next Friday (28th February) to coordinate local negotiations arising from the abolition of town councils. Eighty town councils are to be scrapped under the Local Government Bill, which was published last October.

The new legislation will see the number of councillors reduced by more than 40% – from 1,627 to 950 – with councillors representing municipal districts at county council level. Six city and county councils, in Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford, are also being merged into three new councils.

IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan said that, among other things, the meeting would prioritise ensuring that no IMPACT members are compulsorily relocated as a result of the abolition of the town councils. “We need to protect members and ensure that whatever new arrangements are put in place do not force them into unacceptably long commutes or relocate them from their centre of operations and out of the communities they serve,” he said.

All the union’s local government branches will be represented by nominated delegates at the meeting, which takes place in IMPACT’s Dublin office.

Dublin Community TV’s film The Inquiry features at the Jameson Dublin international film festival tomorrow (Saturday). The dramatisation of the Askwith Inquiry, which took place during the 1913 Lockout, will be screened at the Lighthouse cinema in Dublin’s Smithfield at 12.30pm on Saturday 22^nd February.

On 29 September 1913 trade unionist Jim Larkin and industrial magnate William Martin Murphy came face to face for the first time in an attempt to bring an end to the Lockout, which had been underway for several weeks.

The film features Bosco Hogan as Murphy and Stephen Murray as Larkin in a docu-drama that brings to life the dramatic events of that encounter, when the two most notorious figures in Irish public life hurled accusations at one another in front of the international press.

Turlough Kelly’s script draws on British parliamentary reports and contemporary newspapers to provide a gripping account of events, including Connolly’s famous statement of the workers’ case.

Read more HERE.