IMPACT yesterday (Thursday) suspended industrial action by over 600 Department of Agriculture technical staff after management agreed to enter a Labour Relations Commission-assisted process to address a comprehensive list of issues tabled by the union. The union said industrial action, which began on Monday 20^th January, will resume if the issues are not resolved.

IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the union had held meetings with management and he believed the department now clearly understood the issues and was “prepared to deal with them all in a serious way.” The first meeting of the LRC process has been set for 17th February.

The issues raised by IMPACT include staffing levels and the department’s failure to implement reports that would generate savings by optimising the skills and resources of agricultural officer grades. The LRC process will also address the grading structure, developing meaningful roles for agriculture officers, the need for a “changed culture towards technical staff and a rebuilding of trust in the collapsed industrial relations system,” and a range of other industrial relations issues.

IMPACT says the workers have fully cooperated with extensive reforms, including the closure of 42 local offices, which have delivered €30 million in savings. The dispute centres on management’s subsequent failure to sustain and expand their duties in line with independent reports – commissioned by the Department – which say further substantial savings could be delivered if technical staff took on some of the inspection duties currently allocated to higher paid civil servants and expensive external contractors.

The union says management’s failure to implement the reforms costs taxpayers and farming communities millions of euro, while putting technical jobs at risk. The staff are central to food safety and compliance with EU and Irish regulations on the production, labelling, sale and export certification of agricultural produce including live animals.

More than 28 unemployed people were chasing every job vacancy in the second half of 2013, according to the trade union-backed Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI). The stark data - which contrasts with Germany, where there are just 2.4 unemployed people for each job vacancy - proves that Ireland’s high unemployment rate is due to a lack of jobs rather than people being unwilling to work.

NERI highlighted the figures as social protection minister Joan Burton announced plans for the implementation of the ‘youth guarantee,’ which aims to ensure that all jobless people aged 18-25 are offered good quality employment, continued education, an apprenticeship, a traineeship, or work experience within four months of becoming unemployed. In a statement issued last week, the minister said the Government would spend over €500 million to implement the guarantee in 2014.

The youth guarantee is an EU initiative agreed by member states during last year’s Irish presidency of the EU. Minister Burton said the system would be introduced in Ireland on a phased basis due to financial constraints. But she said Ireland already had some of the key elements of the guarantee in place through initiatives like JobBridge and Intreo.

The overall Irish unemployment rate has fallen from a peak of over 15% in February 2012 to 12.4% at the end of 2013. Youth unemployment is much higher at 25%, down from 33%.

Noreen Moloney.

IMPACT and Siptu are to run a joint campaign to increase political awareness of the issue of so-called ‘sleepover’ hours in residential care, ahead of renewed talks with management.

The joint campaign approach was agreed following a recent Labour Court decision to direct unions and employers to return to talks in the Labour Relations Commission (LRC). The unions had referred the issue to the Court after LRC-facilitated talks failed to resolve the issue.

IMPACT and Siptu say excessive sleepover demands on staff in residential care facilities put the HSE and the other voluntary employers in breach of Irish and EU working time legislation. Many staff are expected to work 63-hour weeks, while payment for ‘sleepover’ hours is below national minimum wage rates.

IMPACT national secretary Louise O’Donnell said the Court had directed the parties to return to the LRC to try and resolve the issues no later than 31^st May 2014. She said the two unions would now engage in a campaign to inform members about their entitlements.

“We are planning a series of meetings across the country, and we’ll be encouraging members to write to their TDs and councillors to make them aware of the situation. These services cannot be run properly if they rely on routine breaches of working time legislation. It’s bad for staff, it’s bad for service users, and employers need to stop exploiting both,” she said.

The unions also plan to make a complaint to the European Commission, citing management’s continuing breaches of the EU working time directive and its failure to implement recommendations from relevant European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings. The ECJ ‘SIMAP’ judgment defined all time when the worker was required to be present on site as working hours for the purposes of work and rest calculations. Its ‘Jaeger’ judgment confirmed that this was the case even if workers could sleep when their services were not required.

International trade union bodies have welcomed a European Parliament vote calling on the EU to draw up a ‘roadmap’ to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. The resolution, adopted earlier this week, calls on the European Commission and member states to establish similar protections to those in place for gender, disability and ethnic discrimination.

The international trade union federation Public Services International (PSI) applauded the move and called on its affiliates – which include IMPACT – to actively oppose homophobia and organise to defend the rights of LGBT workers. “PSI unequivocally condemns any form of discrimination or violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons,” it said.

The European Parliament’s resolution, which was passed by 394 votes to 176 with 72 abstentions, came as homophobia was in the news here and abroad. Today’s official opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics has put the spotlight on human rights abuses against LGBT people in Russia. Here at home, the controversy over RTÉ’s payment of compensation to powerful journalists accused of homophobia rages on.

Last year, a survey by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency found nearly half of Europe’s LGBT people felt they were harassed or discriminated against, while over a quarter had been physically attacked or threatened with violence. MEPs now want laws revised to make incitement to hatred on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity a crime.

MEPs say the EU roadmap should cover discrimination in employment, education, health, goods and services, families and freedom of movement, freedom of expression, hate crime and asylum.

Trade unions have welcomed the reinstatement of six Joint Labour Committees (JLCs), which set minimum pay and other conditions for tens of thousands of workers in low paid sectors.

New legislation was needed to reinstate the bodies after the High Court declared them illegal in 2011, following a legal challenge from employers in the hotel and catering sector. Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton signed orders establishing the reconstituted bodies last month.

Although they will have fewer powers than their predecessors, the JLCs – which consist of union and employer representatives under an independent chair – will agree ‘employment regulation orders,’ which can set pay rates above the statutory minimum in hospitality, catering, retail, contract cleaning, security and agriculture.

The reestablishment of the bodies has been a priority for Irish unions since the JLCs were undermined in 2011. Mandate and Siptu, unions that represent large numbers of workers in the sectors, have given a broad welcome to the new arrangement.

The charity Nurture Africa is looking for IMPACT members to volunteer for two weeks’ work in Uganda in April. It’s an opportunity for you to share your skills with a local community project, which is part-supported by IMPACT, and to help bring about sustainable change in a developing country. It’s also a chance to experience a different culture and see first-hand how IMPACT’s developing world fund is helping improve lives in Africa.

The union’s developing world fund – made up of 3% of all IMPACT members’ union subs – supports trade union and community development projects around the world. Since 2012 it has been supporting Nurture Africa, an Irish charity that provides health care and education for orphans and children affected by HIV-AIDS in Uganda. The organisation also supports employment and health education programmes in the communities where the children live. 

Now the union is sponsoring five two-week placements for IMPACT members in April 2014. IMPACT will meet the sponsorship cost of €1,500 – cash which will go directly to providing services to vulnerable children and their communities. All you have to do is give your skills for two weeks and meet the cost of flights and vaccinations.

In November 2013, four IMPACT members spent two weeks working on projects. This was the second group of IMPACT volunteers to travel to Uganda last year, following a group of IMPACT volunteers who travelled there in April 2013. Click here to watch a short film of our four volunteers talking about their experience. You can also read their individual accounts, and find out more details for prospective volunteers, on the IMPACT blog.

IMPACT’s retired members’ vocational group is to hold its annual general meeting in Dublin’s Gresham hotel from 11am on Tuesday 25^th February.

Speakers will include the union’s president, Kevin O’Malley, general secretary Shay Cody and deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan. Elections for the group’s committee and officers will be held during the meeting. All retired people who are former IMPACT members are welcome to attend. Get more information about the retired members’ vocational group HERE.

News of the sudden closure of the Mount Carmel private maternity hospital came as a severe blow to its 300 staff, more than 80 of whom are IMPACT members.

IMPACT official Stephen O’Neill met liquidators appointed to the hospital after the closure was announced, as unions sought to explore any possible options to keep the hospital open. “It became clear that the closure was moving ahead, with redundancies to commence almost immediately,” he said.

The union had a permanent presence at the hospital after the closure was announced, providing practical assistance to ensure that staff received all their entitlements and to assist with individual queries and information on job-seeking and social welfare entitlements.

Stephen said IMPACT members were understandably hurt. “This is the worst possible news they could have received. Mount Carmel has an outstanding reputation as a maternity hospital. That reputation is built on the expertise of the staff. It makes no sense that maternity services in Ireland should lose this pool of knowledge and experience. It’s a source of genuine anger that the hospital is facing closure in these circumstances. These workers – and the people they serve – deserve better,” he said.

He added that IMPACT had approached other health employers to see what employment options were available. RTÉ subsequently reported that a number of hospitals were holding recruitment sessions for staff at Mount Carmel.

New unified pay scales, which end the two-tier public service pay system introduced in 2011, will be effective from November 2013. An official circular, issued last week, confirms that new pay scales for staff who entered the public service after January 2011 will be backdated to last November.

The 2011 scales, which introduced a further 10% pay cut for new entrants – on top of earlier pay cuts and the so-called ‘pension levy’ – are to be withdrawn.

The circular also confirms that the 10% cut in allowances for new entrants, also introduced in January 2011, is rescinded with effect from 1^st November 2013. The abolition of the two-tier pay system was a priority for unions in last year’s Haddington Road negotiations.

The changes, first reported in the IMPACT members’ ebulletin last October, will see post-2011 entrants ascend to pre-2011 scale points after two years, or less in some cases. As a result, most staff recruited after January 2011 will be earning more than their current scale allows once they reach their third scale point. They will then ascend the same pre-2011 incremental pay scales as everyone else in their grade.

Many lower paid grades – including clerical officers and service officers – will see some benefit after one, rather than two, years.

Unified pay scales for general civil service grades have been compiled and the same approach is to be applied across the public service. As a result, all staff in any given grade will be on common pre-2011 pay scales, albeit with up to two additional post-2011 points added at the bottom of the scales.

The changes will apply to all staff who joined the civil and public service after January 2011, including those already in post. There will be no change for staff who joined the public service on pre-2011 pay scales.

IMPACT and other public service unions negotiated the changes after the Haddington Road agreement was accepted by a majority of unions. Haddington Road conceded the union demand that the two-tier pay system must end.

Around 4,000 staff have transferred to the new Child and Family Agency, which was officially launched last week. The new state body, which has a budget of €600 million and a national network of over 100 community-based family resource centres, marks a turning point in child protection, according to IMPACT official Christina Carney.

Christina said the agency has also meant fundamental changes for the staff involved. “The new agency has assumed responsibility for vital interactions between the state and children and families including child protection, family support and regulation of pre-schools,” she said.

IMPACT has established a framework agreement with the children’s department to facilitate the transfer of staff to the new agency. It covers policies on staff transfers, professional registration, workforce planning, recruitment, regularisation, industrial relations, support services and continuous professional development.

The union has strongly welcomed the focus on children, which underpins the reform measures. “This has been a huge collaborative effort and our members are focused on the best possible outcomes for children. That has been the driver of our efforts in establishing a framework agreement,” said Christina. She acknowledged the crucial role of independent chairperson Joan Carmichael in establishing the framework agreement.

Speaking at the launch of the new agency, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said the new agency would create a seamless integration of policy and service delivery. “For too long our flawed approach treated child and family services like an adjunct of another agency, as an afterthought. But not anymore,” she said.

Chief executive Gordon Jeyes called the agency an exciting fresh start. “The Child and Family Agency will be a ferocious corporate parent, demanding for the children of Ireland the very best that the state can give. This will be an agency that has the agility and the freedom and flexibility to engage with individual families on a practical level and the capacity to react to changing circumstances,” he said.

ESRI economist John Fitzgerald’s claims – that more than 2,000 local authority water staff were surplus to requirements – proved to be completely wrong last week. The economist claimed on Monday that just 1,700 staff were needed to deliver Irish water services, but that over 4,300 would remain in place until 2026. He claimed this would cost taxpayers up to €2 billion.

But by Tuesday the professor had rowed back after IMPACT and other unions questioned his staffing figures. His argument about savings then fell apart.

An IMPACT briefing, produced immediately on the day (27^th January) the claims hit the headlines, undermined Fitzgerald’s case. It was circulated among trade union communications and economics staff via the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

When he was finally quizzed on the figures, on RTÉ’s Primetime programme that evening, the professor answered that he was “not sticking to the figure” on which the entire story was based.

As IMPACT explained in its blog on Tuesday (28^th January) morning, it was impossible to demonstrate that “between €1 billion and €2 billion” in savings had been foregone once the 1,700 figure was scotched. But it wasn’t the only figure that was wrong. IMPACT pointed out to journalists that the 4,300 figure for current staffing was a 2010 figure. Staffing levels were actually significantly lower following local authority staff reductions.

It was also wrong to assume that staffing levels would be static over the coming years. In fact they will fall substantially because more than half the water workforce is aged over 50. The many journalists and politicians who commented on Fitzgerald’s claims also seemed unaware that staffing costs make up less than 15% of the total cost of delivering water services.

Fitzgerald’s claim of up to €2 billion savings foregone also assumed that alternatives to the agreed arrangements – that most staff will remain in local authorities and provide services to Irish Water under ‘service level agreements’ – were cost free. In fact, any alternative scenario would incur substantial costs.

IMPACT head of communications Bernard Harbor said it was irresponsible to make unsubstantiated accusations about waste on this scale. “The ESRI is an influential body and it should check its facts before seeking the limelight on an issue like this,” he said.

Workers at the giant Dutch flower auctioneers FloraHolland are holding a 24-hour ‘warning strike’ today (Friday). And they’re seeking your help in the run-up to this Valentine’s day, the most lucrative day of the year for the flower trade.

While the company looks forward to huge sales next week – it sells an average of over 20 million flowers and plants a day – workers have been fighting for a new collective agreement and help for hundreds of workers who are losing their jobs or being relocated on foot of a major restructuring plan announced last October.

Negotiations have reached an impasse, leaving the unions no alternative but to take strike action. They've asked for your support. CLICK HERE to send a message to company bosses in support of the union's demands.