Feature Article
Your voice, your vote
IMPACT asks members to update contact details
by Niall Shanahan
 
With public sector pay talks now concluded, we will be balloting members on the proposed new pay deal, so IMPACT is cleaning up its membership database to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.

With public sector pay talks now concluded, we will be balloting members on the proposed new pay deal, so IMPACT is cleaning up its membership database to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.

Contact details change when you move jobs or change address and, understandably, updating contact details with your trade union can be easily overlooked.

For this reason, IMPACT has been carefully checking the union’s entire membership database and liaising with branches and individual members to ensure that contact details, including personal email and home address, are fully up to date.

We are currently sending emails to members asking them to review their contact details (including mobile number and e-mail) and to make any necessary changes. Approximately 10% of those contacted have requested amendments to their data.

The union has also set up a dedicated email account updatemydetails@impact.ie for members to respond. Members can contact this address at any time in the future to inform the union about changes to their contact details.

If you’ve changed address in the last 12 months, please drop us a line at updatemydetails@impact.ie. If you’ve received an email from IMPACT about updating your details, please respond as soon as possible so that we can make sure we’ve got your details up to date.

additional articles
Help for graduate health professionals
by Lughan Deane

 

IMPACT is hosting a series of special ‘graduate days’ to help recent graduates in health and social care with CVs, interview skills and profile building.

Recent graduates in a range of professions are being invited to sign up for the free events. The professions are occupational therapy, physiotherapy, social work, social care, and speech and language therapy. Recently-graduated dietitians, podiatrists, chiropodists, psychologists, and clinical biochemists are also welcome to attend.

The events focus on CV-building and interview skills and are led by Helen Hourigan of H-Training. She discusses competency-based and non-competency-based interview techniques. There is also a session on using online media for communication and promotion, including LinkedIn.

The sessions will also cover CORU issues, including how to register, and how to attain and arrange all relevant documentation and certification. Finally, there will be a session focusing on contracts and, specifically, on how to go about securing a beneficial contract.

The first event in the series took place on the 7th of June in Galway. There is an upcoming event planned for June 20th in IMPACT's Dublin office.

The events begin at 9:30am and run until 4.00pm Lunch and beverages will be provided.

Anyone interested in attending is advised to contact hscp@impact.ie to register as places are limited.

Brexit ‘rights bonfire’ warning
by Bernard Harbor

The Government’s Brexit strategy must be strengthened and expanded to prevent Ireland mimicking a possible bonfire of workers’ rights and equality protections in the UK and Northern Ireland, according to IMPACT. Andy Pike, national secretary for the union’s Civil Service division, warned that post-Brexit Britain was set to become a low tax, low regulation, low wage “beacon for exploitation,” and called on politicians, trade unions and civil society organisations to act to prevent the same thing happening here.

Speaking at a joint session at the union’s conferences in Wexford earlier this month, Andy said: “Britain will be outside EU competition and trade regulations, and will likely offer subsidies and eye-watering tax breaks to attract inward investment on the basis of low wages and low regulation. Rising inequality will follow, along with further reaction against foreigners, immigrants and migrant workers. There will be voices urging Ireland to take the same course. Our trade unions, civil society organisations and progressive politicians must work together to ensure that it doesn’t happen,” he said.

Angela Kirk, the national secretary in IMPACT’s Services and Enterprises division, told the conference that British workers were set to lose important rights, which were rooted in EU treaties and directives. “British trade unions are gravely concerned about the threat to workers’ rights in a post-Brexit scenario. While the majority of European legislation has been transposed into UK law, there is a danger that important rights and obligations –covering gender equality, health and safety, working time, part-time workers’ rights, and more – could be removed.

“That will place downward pressure on employment protections across the island of Ireland. Our Government needs to develop a strategy to protect jobs and employment standards in the event of a hard Brexit,” she said.

Blair Horan, secretary of the trade union ‘Charter Group,’ called on the Government to establish a special task force, with employer and worker representation, to lobby the European Commission for urgent measures to protect employment in sectors that are highly dependent on exports to the UK and Northern Ireland.

Mr Horan said: “The Brexit threat to jobs and incomes is very real, especially in the food and agriculture sector, which directly sustains almost 10% of employment in the Republic of Ireland, while sourcing almost three-quarters of its raw materials and services from domestic sources. This will have a serious impact on the fabric of rural Ireland unless strong measures are put in place now. The social partners should aim to agree a joint approach on the measures necessary to meet the challenges.”

IMPACT’s Services and Enterprises divisional conference passed motions calling on the Irish Congress of Unions to ensure that worker’s rights and incomes are protected in the post-Brexit era.

CE pension situation slammed
by Niall Shanahan

IMPACT will not rest until a Labour Court recommendation on community employment (CE) supervisor pensions is implemented. Speaking to delegates at IMPACT’s Services and Enterprises conference last month, outgoing divisional cathaoirleach Tony Dawson said the union had fought to establish a high level forum on the community and voluntary sector, but said there was little sing that the urged of Government action on the 2008 Labour Court rec.

“Nine years on from that recommendation the union has had to fight to convene the high level forum on the community and voluntary sector. We continue to seek improvements for all community and voluntary sector workers, to build the strength of the union in this sector and win recognition for the valuable services they provide,” he said.

Tony urged other branches in the division to support the union’s efforts, saying the community and voluntary pillar is composed of members “who’ve continued to deliver invaluable work in communities up and down the country, in the teeth of savage cuts and constant uncertainty. These are members for whom there is no Lansdowne Road, and little in the way of deals on pay like those we’ve seen in the private sector.”

Tony welcomed the “positive and progressive pay deals” that have been achieved by the union for private sector workers in the division. “Many of these agreements have demonstrated a creativity and innovation in moving toward performance-related pay measures that bring real and tangible rewards to our members.

“There have been disagreements and very serious challenges along the way. Ultimately we have demonstrated our collective skill for problem solving, something we have always taken justifiable pride in as a union,” he said.

Tony also paid tribute to communities in Mayo for supporting the families of the crew of Rescue 116 after it crashed near Blackrock Island in March. The crew were members of IMPACT’s IALPA and IAESA branches, which are part of the union’s Services and Enterprise division.

“The people of Belmullet and Blacksod and in all of the neighbouring communities inspired a nationwide response in the face of unspeakable loss. They turned toward each other to help. They embraced the families of the colleagues we lost to give them comfort. Their response was inspirational, and I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to them for reminding us of the strength of people working together,” he said.

Balance needed on Tusla
by Lughan Deane

Earlier this month IMPACT trade union’s health and welfare divisional conference passed a motion calling on the union to engage with Tusla, the child and family agency, to seek enhanced conditions of employment for child protection and social workers to “reflect the onerous, complex and crisis-driven nature of their work.”

This comes as Tusla was placed under renewed media scrutiny following the broadcast of an RTÉ Investigates programme about failures concerning children in care.

The programme appeared on the same day as the publication of a report by the Government’s special rapporteur for child protection, Dr Geoffrey Shannon, which contained serious criticisms of the organisation’s systems and procedures.

Adrienne Byrne of IMPACT’s Kildare branch, who works at Tusla, argued for a more balanced and fairer media narrative regarding the agency and its work. She said dedicated social care workers delivering services to vulnerable children in very difficult circumstances were villainised by a media that is obsessed with finding culprits rather than solutions.

“Morale in Tusla is at an all-time low and that’s driven by the media. The narrative has been negative and reactive. The coverage is made up of highly filtered information that is primarily anti-Tusla” she said.

IMPACT communications officer Niall Shanahan said a high volume of coverage in an intensely competitive media environment made it difficult for people to separate facts from opinion. “This is particularly the case as calls for ‘heads to roll’ become increasingly shrill. As is often the case in moments of crisis concerning public service workers, these calls generate more heat than light, and the term ‘public servant’ once again finds itself being turned into a casual insult,” he said.

IMPACT assistant general secretary Chris Cully said little of the huge amount of very good work TUSLA does is ever covered by the media, while Niall Guy, who is an out-of-hours social worker, said the voice of social workers was “lost in the noise.”

“Morale is low in my department. Everyone finds the constant negative coverage depressing. Both because there is a degree of truth in some of what is being said and because there is never any balance: never a counter-narrative,” he said.

Social workers are continuing to do their work in a very challenging environment, as they do throughout the year, despite the noise and opprobrium raging on the airwaves and in the press. This doesn’t make the work of child protection any easier.

IMPACT wants ‘just’ climate change action
by Bernard Harbor

A new study from IMPACT calls on the Government act to offset potentially negative employment effects of decarbonisation, and ensure that all citizens and communities benefit from green infrastructure developments. The report, A Just Transition to a Low Carbon Economy, which was produced with the assistance of the Institute for International and European Affairs (IIEA), calls for “a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of low-carbon climate change policies.” It was launched in Dublin last month by climate action minister Denis Naughten.

The IMPACT report says climate change is the greatest challenge facing humanity, and that a much more concentrated effort is required for Ireland to meet its international commitments on greenhouse gas emissions. But it claims the social aspects of decarbonisation have been largely ignored by policymakers, and says a “chaotic” restructuring would harm jobs and communities currently dependent on carbon-based technologies.

The report says a ‘just transition’ approach would reduce community resistance to energy infrastructure projects. And it calls on the Government to:

  • Assess the employment and other social aspects of decarbonisation plans and programmes
  • Give citizens and communities a bigger stake in low-carbon developments, including by increasing the level of community and local authority ownership of solar PV, wind, biomass, and waste-to-energy developments
  • Make environmental tax measures revenue-neutral by using cash raised to offset the negative employment and social impacts of decarbonisation
  • Undertake an audit of the skills required to support a low-carbon transition, and invest in training and reskilling
  • Support income replacement measures for workers and communities effected by decarbonisation policies
  • Accelerate the implementation of Ireland’s emission-reduction targets and promote the ‘just transition’ model in global fora.

Report author Joe Curtin, who is Senior Fellow (Climate Change) at the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), said: “The manner in which Ireland makes the transition to a low carbon economy will have implications for jobs, for workers, and for geographically and socially marginalised communities. If we get it right, this journey can be socially beneficial, with particular economic opportunities for marginal regions. It’s great that IMPACT is leading the debate on the social impacts of climate change.”

IMPACT Deputy General Secretary Kevin Callinan said: “Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity and it needs to become more of a priority for trade unions. We need a greater focus on the social and jobs dimensions of low-carbon development to facilitate a just transition that recognises and addresses the genuine fears of workers dependent on high-carbon technologies, and the concerns of the communities that we ask to host low-carbon and other green infrastructure. ”

Sinéad Mercier, a researcher and consultant from the environmental pillar who contributed to the project, said: “Just transition has become one of the most important aspects of climate action in recent years because preparing people’s livelihood’s and futures for the impact of climate change mitigation and adaptation is a stark and immediate concern. We have no idea what a climate-changed workforce looks like. Long-term planning, government investment and research is needed.”

Niamh Garvey of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition said: “The most vulnerable people around the world are on the front line of the impacts of climate change. Promoting a just transition globally is therefore vital, and a key part of the just transition framework. At a time when the Trump administration is considering pulling out of the Paris Agreement, Irish leadership on the global response to climate change is required more urgently than ever.”

IMPACT is Ireland’s largest public service union, with members in health, education, local government, the civil service, and voluntary and semi-state organisations.

Read a summary of the report HERE.

Read the full report HERE.

SNA views sought
by Lughan Deane

Claire Griffin, an educational psychologist and lecturer in educational psychology at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, is currently engaged in PhD research focusing on Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) working with children with behavioural care needs.

As part of that research, she is seeking insights from SNAs through a survey.

It is intended that research findings will be used to inform policy and practice within an Irish context and support the enhancement of inclusive practices within schools.

Full ethical permission has been granted for the study. Participation in this study is voluntary and anyone is free to withdraw at any time, without giving a reason.

The researcher will ensure that no school, teacher, SNA or pupil will be identifiable from the data.

The survey will take approximately five minutes to complete.

For further details please contact Claire on claire.griffin@mic.ul.ie

NEWS
IMPACT executive recommends pay proposals
 
IMPACT’s elected Central Executive Committee (CEC) has unanimously recommended that members vote in favour of the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020. IMPACT will commence a ballot of members in public service and non-commercial semi-state organisations next week.




IMPACT’s elected Central Executive Committee (CEC) has unanimously recommended that members vote in favour of the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020. IMPACT will commence a ballot of members in public service and non-commercial semi-state organisations next week.

The CEC’s decision was taken following a meeting of the union’s Consultative Council this afternoon (Tuesday), which comprises elected representatives of all IMPACT’s branches and divisions.

IMPACT members will have until 12 noon on Friday 14th July to return their ballot papers, and a union-wide result is expected to be announced the following Monday (17th July).

IMPACT’s head of communications Bernard Harbor said: “The CEC recommended acceptance of the agreement on the grounds that it represents an acceleration of pay restoration, preserves the value of public service pensions, and maintains crucial protections against outsourcing. The executive believes the outcome of the recent talks is the best deal available through negotiations at this time.

“If accepted, the agreement ensures that pay lost through ‘FEMPI’ legislation would be restored to more than 90% of public servants. The rest would see full pay restoration within a further two years. And it will also mean pay increases for lower paid staff currently earning less than €28,500, who have already exited FEMPI provisions.

“It will also preserve the value of public service pensions, while taking almost a quarter of public servants out of FEMPI pension levy provisions by 2020. As a result, all public servants would receive positive pay and pension levy adjustments, with 73% seeing gains of 7% or more over the lifetime of the agreement. This is in line with the better union-negotiated pay rounds currently being agreed in the private sector.”

Bernard said the preservation of protections against outsourcing, which IMPACT had successfully invoked to prevent privatisation of local authority services in the past, was also a highly valuable feature of the proposed agreement, which also provides an avenue to address outstanding issues like pay for ‘new entrants,’ employed since 2010, and recruitment and retention problems.

“IMPACT will use these new mechanisms to address recruitment and retention problems among a range of public service grades including health and social care professionals and various civil service professional grades. And we will use the process for dealing with new entrants’ pay to address inequities being experienced by health professionals, low paid staff like special needs assistants and clerical officers, and many others,” he said.

Proposed pay deal: All you need to know
by Bernard Harbor
 
The IMPACT ballot on the proposed agreement, the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, will get underway next week, when the distribution of ballot papers through branches begins. The deadline for members to return their ballot papers is Friday 14th July.

The IMPACT ballot on the proposed agreement, the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, will get underway next week, when the distribution of ballot papers through branches begins. The deadline for members to return their ballot papers is Friday 14th July.

In the meantime, full details of the proposed agreement, and its provisions and conditions, are available on our website, where you can also get a full copy of the proposed deal.

The IMPACT website also carries a ‘frequently asked questions’ document, which is regularly updated and includes a facility for members to ask questions about the proposals.

Get politics out of health
by Bernard Harbor
 
Ireland’s health policy should be based on the needs of patients and communities, not political expediency or the demands of powerful vocal interests within the system, IMPACT has said. Responding to a speech by health minister Simon Harris at the union’s Health and Welfare division conference in Wexford earlier this month, national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the union backed the ten-year planning approach recently backed by an all-party Oireachtas committee.

Ireland’s health policy should be based on the needs of patients and communities, not political expediency or the demands of powerful vocal interests within the system, IMPACT has said. Responding to a speech by health minister Simon Harris at the union’s Health and Welfare division conference in Wexford earlier this month, national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the union backed the ten-year planning approach recently backed by an all-party Oireachtas committee.

“Those who shout loudest should not decide the future of services and workplaces that we all depend on. And structural reforms and the development of services must be planned over a ten-year timeframe, not rooted exclusively in the lifetime of a particular Government,” he said.

Eamonn welcomed the findings of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare, which were published at the end of May, including its recommendation for additional investment the health service over the next decade in order to provide equal access to universal healthcare.

He said unions could support many of the proposals the minister put to the Oireachtas Committee when he gave evidence in March. “We support the view that the HSE could be significantly downsized, and that a small number of integrated regional health groups could better perform most of its functions while reporting directly to the Department of Health. This vision was reflected in the evidence submitted to the Committee by the Congress health unions last year.”

Eamonn told Minister Harris that staff morale had been damaged by “the lazy lexicon of the front-line,” which sought to diminish the role of clerical and administrative staff. “Of course quality services need dedicated nurses and doctors and, indeed, other health and social care professionals who are so often absent from the media and political narrative. But the message, implied or otherwise, that staff in other vital support roles have no value, or are somehow inferior, needs to be nailed once and for all. These people are the backbone of our health services,” he said.

High value put on outsourcing clause
by Bernard Harbor
 
The Government’s proposal to weaken protections against privatisation, by allowing pay costs to be taken into account in management outsourcing proposals, was stiffly – and ultimately successfully – resisted by IMPACT and unions like Siptu in last week’s negotiations. It was only at the eleventh hour that the Government relented, leaving existing protections intact.

The Government’s proposal to weaken protections against privatisation, by allowing pay costs to be taken into account in management outsourcing proposals, was stiffly – and ultimately successfully – resisted by IMPACT and unions like Siptu in last week’s negotiations. It was only at the eleventh hour that the Government relented, leaving existing protections intact.

While the monetary aspects of public service agreements generate most debate – along with issues like working time – the outsourcing protections are arguably as important, if not more.

That’s because they compel management to consult with unions and produce a business plan setting out the case for what it calls ‘external service delivery’ if they want to outsource a service or part of a service. Crucially, labour costs cannot be included in the business plan.

Abandoning the ‘labour cost’ provision would have meant virtually every business case would support privatisation  – on the basis of minimum wage and rock-bottom workers’ rights – regardless of the impact on service quality and worker protections.

In the talks, management also sought to amend the rules to allow projects worth €10 million or less to be outsourced without reference to any consultation or protections at all.

In the past, IMPACT has successfully invoked the protections – first won under the Croke Park agreement and strengthened under Haddington Road in 2013 – to prevent privatisation of local authority services. That’s why the union doggedly insisted that there would be no deal if the provisions were watered down.

IMPACT seeks ibec support on gender pay gap
by Lughan Deane
 
IMPACT has written to employer group Ibec ahead of an upcoming stakeholder consultation process on the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2017.

IMPACT has written to employer group Ibec ahead of an upcoming stakeholder consultation process on the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2017.

The Bill, which will require employers with more than 50 employees to report data on the size of their internal gender pay gaps, was published in February following a call by IMPACT. It was passed last month – with almost unanimous support - through second stage by the Seanad.

During the Seanad debate, Fine Gael’s Minister David Stanton and Senator Catherine Noone both spoke in favour of the principle underpinning the Bill, but insisted that a consultation process involving trade unions and employers was required.

Given that IMPACT is both a trade union and, for the purposes of this Bill, an employer, it will have a valuable contribution to make to that process.

Ibec had previously stated its opposition to the concept of gender pay gap reporting. In its submission on the recently published National Strategy for Women and Girls, Ibec stated that “The proposed transparency measure of published wage surveys is not a useful mechanism for tackling gender pay gaps”.

Read more: “gender pay gap reporting provisions are likely to do more for pay parity in five years than equal pay legislation has done in 45 years” says prominent employment lawyer


IMPACT wrote to the group to point out that gender pay gap reporting presents business with several real opportunities.

In its letter, IMPACT argued that the measure “would open up a new front on which employers could compete to attract and retain the best female talent.”

And that “publicly available gender pay gap information would also allow firms to make informed choices about who to engage as suppliers or contractors from a gender equality perspective.”

IMPACT said the proposed laws represented “a simple catalyst: a market-oriented ‘nudge’ that leverages the force of inter-firm competition to drive down the pay gap. A trigger – a prompt – rather than a direct intervention.”

The letter also pointed out that multiple employers’ groups in the UK (CBI, EEF and TechUK) have explicitly and publicly recognised the measure’s potential value.

The correspondence concludes by expressing a hope that “Ibec might reconsider its opposition to the principle underpinning the Bill” ahead of the consultation.