Aware, the organisation that provides support, education and information services for people impacted by depression and bipolar disorder, is urgently seeking 100 new volunteers. The organisation relies on the volunteers to help provide its free support services nationwide. These essential services have a profound impact on individuals and families throughout Ireland.
Aware, the organisation that provides support, education and information services for people impacted by depression and bipolar disorder, is urgently seeking 100 new volunteers. The organisation relies on the volunteers to help provide its free support services nationwide. These essential services have a profound impact on individuals and families throughout Ireland.
Aware is currently recruiting volunteers across its four support services: Support line, support mail, support and self care groups, and life skills online. No prior qualifications or experience are required as comprehensive training, support and education is provided by the organisation.
For more information, visit the Aware website’s volunteering page or call 01 6617211.
If you’d like to promote Aware’s call for volunteers in your workplace, you can download a poster HERE.
IMPACT activist Des Mullally is seeking support for his bid to win a second term as a worker-director on the board of airport operator daa. Polling day is 22nd November, and all company employees are entitled to vote. A company employee for over 30 years, Des was first elected as a worker-director in 2013, when colleagues gave him the second highest number of first preference votes.
In this campaign video he outlines his priority objectives for the new term and urges daa workers to exercise their vote on Wednesday.
Civil and public service fixed allowances, which were cut at the height of the economic crisis, are to be restored by 2020. The timetable is set out in the new Public Service Pay and Pensions Bill, published earlier this month, which gives effect to the new pay deal backed by IMPACT and other unions.
The legislation repeals the 2009 FEMPI Act with effect from 1st January 2008. 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.
Allowances linked to pay scales were restored in line with pay awards under the 2015 Landsdowne Road Agreement, but many fixed allowances were not. The union had earlier sought clarification from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) over when these allowances would be increased in line with wider pay restoration.
Two scholarships in honour of former IMPACT activist Tom Bogue were awarded by the School of Applied Social Studies at an event at University College Cork last week. The €6,000 ‘Tom Bogue Postgraduate Scholarship’ was established by the union’s Cork branch to remember Tom and reflect his commitment to education and social progress.
The awards were won by Anna Marie Bourke for her essay on the role of research in the development of social policy in Ireland, and Jon Facer for his essay on how the ‘politics of austerity’ impacted on social justice in 21st century Ireland.
Tom’s trade union career spanned over 50 years from his first union meeting in 1962. He was a stalwart of IMPACT’s Cork branch, the Cork Trades Council and the ICTU unemployed centre in Cork city.
He was a president of the Local Government and Public Services Union (LGPSU), one of the unions that merged to create IMPACT. He was respected throughout the union movement for his commitment, hard work and cool judgement, and his deep understanding of local government and public service issues.
An avid reader and a student of social studies, Tom brought great intelligence to debate and was an inspiration to those who worked with him. He was known, respected and held in great affection by generations of IMPACT members.
Dublin City Council has agreed to introduce a regular competition for general operatives (GO) to compete for clerical officer (CO) posts. IMPACT secured the deal, in which CO posts will be internally confined and open to general operatives for the first time.
The union argued that the opportunity to change streams from GO to CO would mean improved terms and conditions and the chance for Muno members to progress and upskill in the clerical grade.
IMPACT official Shane Lambert said management wanted to ensure that the competitive process attracted the people with the necessary skills and competencies. “We’ve committed to working out a competitive process that will identify suitable candidates, while management has committed to providing specific training in areas such as IT and administration. We’re also looking at what supports the union can provide to ensure our members reap the maximum benefits achievable from this agreement,” he said.
Meanwhile, a small group of IMPACT members in pest control have secured a subsistence rate following a union campaign. The eight workers work from individual vehicles, responding to complaints and queries. They had been receiving an eating on site allowance which amounts to a little over a euro a day.
Shane said: “The allowance is really only appropriate where canteen facilities are inadequate or unsatisfactory, and applies to workers who are on a single site or location for most if not all the day. These workers are on the road moving from place to place. We sought the application of subsistence arrangements, on the basis that this was a more appropriate arrangement for their work pattern,” he said.
IMPACT’s Agriculture No.1 branch has secured a new agreement on recruitment, revised working practices and other matters for agriculture department technical officers. The negotiations, which took a year to conclude, covered a wide range of issues including the recruitment of new officers, promotions to supervisory and superintendent posts, flexibility agreements and managing inspections and field work.
IMPACT national secretary Andy Pike said the agreement resolved the uncertainty over the future for technical staff by outlining their future role. “We are now seeing significant fresh recruitment in the entry grade and genuine career progression for experienced staff for the first time in many years. The agreement secures our technical management structures and clearly provides for the management of technical staff by senior technical grades,” he said.
The deal will also result in the allocation of inspection duties to technical staff in multi-disciplinary teams, whilst maintaining existing career structures. “
We expect to see this progress maintained, and to see technical numbers rise from the current all-time low back to acceptable levels. I am very pleased that the department has recognised the vital role technical staff carry out in the regulation of the agri-food sector. They are needed like never before because Brexit will require more technical staff to cope with changes in regulation, and to safeguard against risks to the safety and integrity of the food chain,” said Andy.
Talks on issues affecting library services and staff resumed in the Workplace Relations Commission this week. IMPACT had raised qualifications, staffing levels and staffless libraries in the discussions, which broke down during the summer because of disagreement over non-professional grade V posts.
Local government employers have given a commitment not to open any new staffless libraries while the talks are in progress.
Meanwhile, IMPACT has sought a renewed engagement with the Local Government Management Agency, which represents employers, over psychometric testing. The union wants discussions on the development of a comprehensive protocol on on-line testing, which would focus on numeracy and literacy.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has criticised remarks by Leo Varadkar, who recently claimed that Ireland's rate of homelessness was low by international standards. ICTU said the Taoiseach’s words were “highly insensitive,” as unions echoed the condemnation of IMPACT-staffed housing organisations.
Niamh Randall, head of policy and communications at the Simon Community, said the narrative around homelessness was “troubling,” and that the attempted normalisation of homelessness was extremely damaging.
“Our numbers are not normal and homelessness is an absolute crisis for each individual. Imagine being trapped in a hotel with your children – one of the biggest tragedies of your life – and hearing that it’s normal,” she said.
ICTU general secretary Patricia King said: “The Taoiseach's attempt to minimise our housing and homeless emergency is entirely lacking in any sense of empathy for the plight of the people who are homeless. They cannot be wished away, nor can this crisis be minimised by some meaningless statistical comparison. They are real people denied the fundamental human right to shelter.”
Listen to IMPACT’s audio bulletin for more on this story, and an exclusive interview with Niamh Randall, head of policy and communications with the Dublin Simon Community.
IMPACT suspended planned industrial action, which was due to start in Roscommon County Council last week, after the Labour Court agreed to issue a clarification of its recommendation in the row over flexi-leave in the council. The decision was taken by the IMPACT Roscommon branch committee, and endorsed by the union’s Local Government Divisional Executive, after mass meeting of staff endorsed the move.
The development came after the ‘oversight body,’ which monitors the implementation of public service agreements, intervened last week and suggested that a Labour Court clarification be sought.
The work-to-rule would have left phones and emails unanswered and counters unstaffed, while halting staff cooperation with additional duties or work outside normal hours. The action was provoked by management’s decision to scrap access to its flexi-time scheme in defiance of an earlier Labour Court recommendation.
Earlier this year the Labour Court said there should be no change in the current facility for staff to take 13 days flexi-leave a year. Management initially wanted to reduce this to just two days. Then, in an attempt to side-step the Labour Court recommendation, the management team said there could never be a business case to support staff access to the scheme.
IMPACT official Padraig Mulligan said: “We welcome the Labour Court intervention. No other local authority in Ireland has attacked working parents – and particularly working mothers – in this this way. It is unprecedented within the public service, and it hits lower-paid women hardest as many of them depend on the flexi-scheme to balance work and caring responsibilities.”
IMPACT says flexi-time is of most benefit to low paid women workers with childcare commitments, because it allows them work up time, which that can later be taken as leave or flexible working.
The HSE has said it intends to pay outstanding sleepover payments to directly-employed staff in the intellectual disability and mental health services before the end of this year. IMPACT won the commitment in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), where further talks on the need for extra resources to properly structure sleepover rosters will start next month.
There will also be further discussions on the development of a transparent process to establish the amount of cash given to section 39 organisations to fund sleepovers, and to highlight outstanding payments needed. Sleepover payments are channelled from the HSE to section 39 bodies via Community Health Organisations.
The WRC outcome will also see a review of section 38 organisations to address gaps in the receipt of sleepover payments from the HSE.
During the talks, IMPACT official Ian McDonnell raised a range of issues including payment of the national minimum wage for HSE and voluntary sector sleepover hours. He also sought a transparent process to allow the union to establish whether sleepover funding has been forwarded to Section 39 organisations.
“We have made a fair bit of progress, but now we need to focus on the need for adequate resources and procedures to fund sleepovers in a way that complies with the 48-hour working week average required under the Organisation of Working Time Act,” he said.
IMPACT has written to education minister Richard Bruton, setting out the issues that last month led an overwhelming number of special needs assistants (SNAs) to vote for industrial action . Deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan said SNAs were committed to the children they support and had not taken the decision lightly.
On the delay in publishing the SNA allocations, Kevin said that the effect was to “completely undermine” the reasonable operation of two agreements made with the department. These include provisions for redeployment under the 2013 Haddington Road agreement, and provisions to prevent the fragmentation of SNA posts under the 2015 Lansdowne Road agreement. Kevin added that the agreements would be less important “if SNAs enjoyed normal public service job security.”
The letter also responded to the department’s reported ‘surprise’ to the SNA ballot result, which Kevin said was “difficult to take seriously.”
He added that a recent announcement by the department, in relation to changes in the method of SNA annual provision, had not been discussed with IMPACT. He said the union would need to understand the full context before it could comment with approval on the proposed new measures.
Kevin also criticised the current comprehensive review of the SNA scheme. “We know nothing about the comprehensive review taking place. It is very difficult to establish who exactly is participating in these processes. One thing is certain: IMPACT is not,” he said.
Last week, officials at the Department of Education and Skills contacted IMPACT proposing discussions about the issues in dispute. In a nationwide ballot of four SNA branches, 97% backed industrial action, up to and including strike action if necessary.
The ballot seeks to achieve the following:
A guarantee that, in future, SNA allocations will be announced in sufficient time (no later than May) to allow the Supplementary Assignment Panel – and distribution of available hours to serving staff – operate to full effect
Arrangements in respect of job security on a par with teachers and other public servants
An agreed procedure for dealing with SNA grievances and issues (including proposals to resolve or refer to an agreed process all outstanding cases).
IMPACT members can get €10 off their travel insurance from KennCo Travel Insurance – and be in with a chance to win a Samsung tablet.
The first 50 people to contact KennCo before 30th November 2017 will be entered in to a draw for a Samsung tablet. Simply send your name, address, and contact number to travel@kennco.ie.*
KennCo offers IMPACT members annual multi-trip cover for just €59. You’re covered no matter how many trips you make and, if you’re living with your partner for over six months, they’re covered too at no extra cost.
KennCo annual travel insurance has bundles of features included as standard at no extra cost. Features include:
Kids go free
Independent travel for children up to and including 17 years old on annual policies
School trips included
Worldwide and European cover available
365-day emergency medical assistance
Public liability
Cancellation and curtailment
Lost baggage
Missed departure
Winter sports and scuba diving included
Terms and conditions and excesses apply
To find out more or to purchase online click here. Contact KennCo on 01-499-4607 or email travel@kennco.ie.
*By providing your contact details you are agreeing to receive marketing communications.
KennCo Underwriting Ltd T/A KennCo Insurance is regulated by The Central Bank of Ireland.
Dublin band, the Rods and Mockers have announced a special Christmas gig to raise funds for the Focus Ireland Christmas appeal. The modish four-piece, which features IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly on guitar (pictured), has been filling dancefloors since they started playing live shows in August.
Eamonn said the band decided to play their final 2017 show to raise funds for Focus Ireland. “We started rehearsing together almost a year ago, drawn together by our love for the music of bands like The Who, The Kinks, The Jam and Jamaican ska sounds.
“We played our first show in August and the response from audiences has been great so far. We were offered the opportunity to play a gig in December, so this time we thought we’d play our hearts out and encourage the audience to make a donation to Focus Ireland,” he said.
Eamonn plays guitar and provides backing vocals for the band.
The show takes place on Saturday 2nd December at the Czech Inn, Parliament Street (the western end of Temple Bar). Admission is free, with a collection for Focus Ireland taking place during the show.
Eamonn said: “If punters can throw in the price of a pint we’d be delighted. Rest assured, they’ll be rewarded with a set of cracking mod and ska tunes. Roddy Doyle claimed The Commitments were the hardest working band in Dublin. We plan to steal that title off them.”
A new public service union called Fórsa with over 80,000 members, will come into being in early 2018 after members of IMPACT, the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), and the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) voted overwhelmingly to amalgamate the three organisations.
A new public service union called Fórsa with over 80,000 members, will come into being in early 2018 after the members of IMPACT, the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), and the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) voted overwhelmingly to amalgamate the three organisations.
Eighty-seven percent of IMPACT members who voted backed the merger. CPSU members backed it by 76% and PSEU members voted 70% in favour. The Registrar for Friendly Societies, which regulates Ireland’s trade unions, is now expected to sanction the merger in early 2018.
Fórsa will represent 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. It will be the second largest union in the country, and the strongest and most influential trade union voice in the public service and semi-state sector.
Speaking after the announcement of the final ballot results on Monday, IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody said: “Fórsa will be a progressive platform for trade unionism in Ireland. It will strengthen the hand and amplify the voice of civil and public servants and the vital services they provide. It will work for a more prosperous and secure future for the 80,000-plus workers we now represent and the thousands more that need the protection of a strong, sure friend in the workplace and in our communities.”
IMPACT president Pat Fallon welcomed the overwhelming endorsement of the new union, but also noted that a small number of IMPACT branches had voted ‘no.’ “This new organisation will be stronger and better resourced than what went before and we are equally determined to protect the interests of every group within the civil service and across our entire membership,” he said.
By pooling the resources of the three unions Fórsa will also be financially stronger. From day one, the new union will have €85 million in assets including a €50 million dispute fund.
There is now a statutory six-week waiting period before the amalgamation can be approved by the Registrar of Friendly Societies. This will end in early January 2018, after which the Registrar is expected to approve the instrument of amalgamation, and the merger will take effect.
Fórsa will represent literally hundreds of different professions, grades and occupations. It will represent 30,000 civil servants, 30,000 health workers, 12,000 education staff, 10,000 local authority workers, and 6,500 people in semi-state organisations and private companies.
A timetable for the 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 earlier this month. The bill gave effect to the provisions of the new pay deal – the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) – which was backed by a large majority of unions, including IMPACT, in ballots over the summer.
A timetable for the 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 earlier this month. The bill gave effect to the provisions of the new pay deal – the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) – which was backed by a large majority of unions, including IMPACT, in ballots over the summer.
IMPACT 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 will underpin the pay adjustments agreed in the PSSA deal, including a 1% increase due next January. More significantly, it establishes a legal timetable for the dismantling of the hated FEMPI legislation. This is what IMPACT 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). Public expenditure minister Paschal Donohoe says this will “place public service pensions on a more sustainable long-term footing.”
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 staff who joined before that date.
The legislation confirms that senior politicians – ministers of state and above – will forego the pay restoration agreed under the PSSA. It also confirms less favorable treatment for members of unions that choose not to abide by the agreement, which was accepted by a large majority of ICTU-affiliated trade unions.
The legislation repeals the 2009 FEMPI Act with effect from 1st January 2008. 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.
Our audio bulletin features an interview with Minister Paschal Donohoe.
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 weeks of intense focus on workplace sexual harassment in Ireland and across the globe.
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 weeks 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, IMPACT and other unions have criticised a minister of state, whose discriminatory comments resulted in a €7,500 compensation award. 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 managing director of Irish Water has confirmed to IMPACT and other unions that its ‘service level agreements (SLAs) with local authorities will remain in place “until such time as an alternative is agreed,” and that no workers will lose their jobs if the company can negotiate agreement on its plans to phase out SLAs by 2021, rather than 2025.
The managing director of Irish Water has confirmed to IMPACT and other unions that its ‘service level agreements (SLAs) with local authorities will remain in place “until such time as an alternative is agreed,” and that no workers will lose their jobs if the company can negotiate agreement on its plans to phase out SLAs by 2021, rather than 2025.
The reassurances came in a letter to unions last Friday (17th November), after a national newspaper ran a story that Irish Water management said contained “a number of statements or inferences that are inaccurate.”
IMPACT was already aware that management hopes to move to a ‘single utility model,’ with no further involvement of local authorities. This was laid out a recent meeting of the Irish Water Consultative Group (IWCG), a management-union forum for dealing with industrial relations and related issues.
The company acknowledges that this would have to be done within an “agreed framework” and “over a number of years.” In his letter to unions, Irish Water managing director Jerry Grant said “negotiations in this regard have yet to commence.”
“No staff will lose their jobs in this process and local authority staff in local authorities have an absolute guarantee of no forced redundancies. The targets in the Irish Water business plan envisage that the total workforce in the sector will gradually be reduced through the transformation process by the order of 1,000 over a period of four to five years. Achieving this is subject to agreements to be negotiated,” he wrote.
IMPACT and other unions are opposed to the proposed new structure, which they say could threaten employment and increase the risk of privatisation in future years. IMPACT national secretary Peter Nolan said: “The proposal of a unitary model is feeding the suspicion that both the Government and Ervia (Irish Water’s parent company) want to keep the option of future privatisation alive, despite political commitments that water will remain in public ownership.”
The unions are currently engaging with Government and other political parties on the issue.
IMPACT has made progress with the HSE in discussions about proposed structures for community healthcare organisations (CHOs), the new structures for managing community and primary health care services. But the union, which is now preparing to enter formal discussions, has warned that ad hoc arrangements are developing because of the lack of detailed proposals from the HSE.
IMPACT has made progress with the HSE in discussions about proposed structures for community healthcare organisations (CHOs), the new structures for managing community and primary health care services. But the union, which is now preparing to enter formal discussions, has warned that ad hoc arrangements are developing because of the lack of detailed proposals from the HSE.
IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the HSE’s latest health plan provides for a number of functioning operational networks in each CHO area. “The HSE has made a proposal to have one pilot network in each CHO area. Up to this point we have only reached an interim agreement on the very senior management and admin structures from chief officer to general manager,” he said.
In a recent letter to HSE management, Eamonn said the absence of any structured proposal from the HSE had placed “an unbearable burden on the system allowing the gestation of an ad hoc approach from area to area.”
He said that IMPACT will proceed with negotiations on the establishment of a learning site in each CHO area on two conditions:
The learning site structures must be interim and must not prejudice the outcome of discussions on permanent structures
Discussion and negotiation must be overseen by a HSE/IMPACT consultative group, which can assign tasks to smaller consultative groups populated by relevant grades, groups or categories.
On the creation of the consultative groups, Eamonn said this provided an opportunity to involve grades, groups and categories that are directly affected by the subject of particular discussion.
“It provides a real opportunity to mobilise ourselves properly. For example, if the health minister decided that nine CHOs and seven hospital groupings wasn’t fit for purpose, and switched to a proposal for six integrated healthcare areas, we would be organised fluidly enough to adapt to that structure,” he said.
Eamonn said a smaller scale approach to the same structures is also taking place in the disability sector as part of the HSE’s Progressing Disabilities plan.
An event was held in Dublin’s Mansion House last week to remember Trevor O’Neill, the IMPACT member and Dublin City Council employee who was shot dead while on holiday with his partner and three children in Majorca in August 2016. It was a case of mistaken identity.
An event was held in Dublin’s Mansion House last week to remember Trevor O’Neill, the IMPACT member and Dublin City Council employee who was shot dead while on holiday with his partner and three children in Majorca in August 2016. It was a case of mistaken identity.
The memorial event was attended by Trevor’s partner Suzanne and other family members, colleagues from IMPACT’s Municipal Employees division, Dublin’s lord mayor, and senior officials from Dublin City Council. IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody was also there.
Trevor joined IMPACT’s Municipal Employees’ branch in1999 when he started work with the drainage division of Dublin City Council. He worked in various sections, but spent the majority of his years working with the Tide Gate’s Crew out of Marrowbone Lane depot.
IMPACT’s Municipal Employees branch spearheaded efforts to raise funds for Trevor’s family following his tragic death, and the city council subsequently established a fund for the purpose.
