Voting on the proposed new pay deal, dubbed the ‘Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020,’ is now getting underway. The ballots are being organised by IMPACT branches, and members have until Friday 14^th July to complete and return their ballot papers.

The elected IMPACT Central Executive Committee has recommended acceptance of the proposed deal, which was the outcome of over two weeks of negotiations that concluded earlier this month.

Secret ballots will be conducted over the next four weeks. Some branches conduct postal votes, while others ballot members in the workplace. In either case, each paid-up member who is eligible to vote gets an individual ballot paper and can cast a secret ballot. You can get details of local arrangements from your IMPACT branch.

Almost 50,000 ballot papers and accompanying material was despatched from head office to branches last Tuesday (20^th June). And the union has set up a helpline (mail ballothelpdesk@impact.ie) for members and activists who have queries about their eligibility to vote or the ballot process. You can also get information from our website guide to the ballot.

The union is also organising local information meetings across the country. You can get details from our website.

Meanwhile our frequently asked questions document contains explanations of all the main aspects of the proposed agreement including pay restoration and pension levy adjustments, the new ‘additional superannuation contribution,’ outsourcing, working time, new entrant issues, and more.

All IMPACT members who are directly affected by the proposed deal are entitled to vote. If you work in the public service or a non-commercial semi-state organisation you are probably entitled to a ballot paper. Members in ‘section 38’ voluntary and community organisations are also eligible to vote.

Once the branch ballots are completed, the votes will be aggregated to determine the national outcome of the IMPACT poll. That will determine IMPACT’s vote at a meeting of the ICTU Public Services Committee which, in turn, will determine the overall public service union position on whether the proposals are accepted or rejected.

 The proposed new ‘public service stability agreement’ will see an end to the FEMPI pay cuts for most, but some of the so-called pension levy will be retained in the form of an ‘additional superannuation contribution.’ Union leaders consider this a price worth paying for preserving the value of public service pensions. BERNARD HARBOR reports.

Thursday 1^st June was almost exactly the mid-point of the recent pay talks. That was the day the Irish Independent’s front page splashed the news that Ireland’s largest pension provider was closing its own staff pension scheme.

The real tragedy is that over 1,200 Irish Life staff will be left wanting as the company walks away from its generous (“gold plated,” according to the Indo) final salary scheme, despite the fact that it had funds in surplus. But the timing of the news also placed a looming discussion of public service pensions – and employee pension contributions – in an awkward context, to say the least.

And it double-underlined the importance of the IMPACT approach of defending the value of public service pensions as a top negotiating priority – up there with pay restoration and maintaining protections against privatisation.

Prior to the negotiations, the Government had signaled its intention to attack the value of public service pensions. It had already passed (though not triggered) legislation to allow pensions be indexed to inflation instead of the preferable existing link between pensions and salaries.

And it had dropped heavy hints about calculating all pensions on the basis of ‘career average’ earnings, instead of the more favourable final salary-based pension now in place for most. IMPACT and other unions were able to negotiate an agreement that stopped both these measures, which would have substantially reduced the value of pensions, from happening. 

But this vital victory had a price.

The Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC), whose May report had informed the Government agenda going into the talks, recommended that most public servants should pay more towards their pensions. This to reflect the fact that public service pensions are worth between 12% (the union estimate) and 18% (the employer’s) more than those available in the private sector.

While other aspects of the employer’s agenda could be more easily negotiated away, it was impossible to simply stonewall a PSPC recommendation that the Government was determined to push through.

The end result is that an ‘additional superannuation contribution’ or ASC will replace some – though not all – of the so-called pension levy which will, in turn, be reduced by €575 a year over the lifetime of the deal.

The amount of post-pension levy ASC paid will vary depending on how much you earn (see table). By 2020, a public servant earning €35,000 per annum will pay €50 (or 0.14% of salary) in ASC each year. A worker on €45,000 a year will pay €1,300 (or 2.9% of salary). Those on €55,000 will pay €2,300, or 4.2% of salary.

There are two important caveats. Staff who joined the public service after January 2013 will pay a significantly lower ASC to reflect the fact that their pensions are not as good as pre-2013 arrangements. And those on ‘fast accrual’ pensions (mainly firefighters, prison officers, Gardai and soldiers) will pay significantly more as their pension benefits are much better than most.

The ASC comes on top of the 6.5% that virtually all public servants already pay towards their pensions, but the so-called pension levy will be gone. And, when pay adjustments are taken into account, there will be a net gain of 7-7.5% for 73% of public servants.

When IMPACT’s elected executive met to discuss the proposals, it considered that the additional contributions were a price worth recommending in exchange for the substantial gain of keeping the value of pensions intact.

Importantly, IMPACT negotiators also ensured that the proposed pay deal specifically links the additional superannuation contribution to the existing level of pension benefits. By explicitly saying that the ASC “is intended to underpin the sustainability of public service pensions” the agreement makes it far more difficult for future Governments to meddle with pension benefits.

When pay adjustments are taken into account, there will be a net gain for everyone – 7-7.5% for 73% of public servants.

IMPACT is confident that, if accepted, the proposed new Public Service Stability Agreement can deliver equality on the issue of the time it takes public servants to ascend their pay scales. Right now, it takes staff who started work in January 2011 or after – the so-called ‘new entrants’ – two additional years before reaching their final scale point.

In the recent pay negotiations, unions sought and achieved a 12-month process to address the length of the scales. This is shorthand for dealing with the outstanding ‘new entrant’ issue in most public service grades, although it won’t address issues that are exclusive to teachers (see below).

IMPACT believes the process can result in the removal of two incremental points from each pay scale, which would mean faster progress up the scale and an equal scale-length for staff who joined the public service before and after 2011.

The negotiation will likely focus on which increments should be removed – a challenge complicated by the fact that the length of pay scales varies widely across public service grades. For example, a civil service cleaner has a five-point scale plus two long service increments, while a teacher takes 27 years to reach their maximum scale point.

The attractive option of simply removing the first two pay points has been ruled out by a Government that says it’s not prepared to change entry salaries because, by and large, it has no problem recruiting staff at current rates. In any case, removing the first two points would not help staff who started work after 2016.

Loose talk

Loose language around the issue – in the media and elsewhere – has created a good deal of confusion about the nature of the problem that new entrants still face. Specifically, the ‘dual’ or ‘two-tier’ pay scales we frequently hear about were negotiated away by unions in 2013.

Completely different new entrant pay scales had been introduced by diktat – without any negotiations, let alone agreement – in 2010. These scales, which for three years ran parallel to those in place for pre-2011 staff, were 10% lower at every point. In other words, the then-Government’s intention was that new staff would be paid 10% less than their older colleagues. Permanently.

This was opposed by unions at the time. But, because there was virtually no recruitment going on during this period (indeed, public service numbers were falling by 10%) very few workers were initially hit and the issue probably got less attention than it warranted.

That said, this was the height of the crisis. The Troika was in town and many economists, commentators and politicians were baying for compulsory redundancies, more across-the-board pay reductions on top of the 14% average cuts already imposed, and widespread privatisation. These threats to all public servants – old and new – understandably had to take priority.

Nevertheless, unions returned to the new entrant issue at the first practical opportunity. In 2013, we prioritised it in talks on what became the Haddington Road Agreement, and secured a merger of the new and pre-existing pay scales. The effect of this improvement was to place new entrants on the pre-2011 rates, albeit with two additional incremental points at the start of the scales.

On the plus side, new entrants now ascended the same pay scales as everyone else. On the downside, it took them two years longer to get to the top.

Complicated

In the case of teachers, the problem was complicated by the abolition of two practices, which had never been available to other education workers like special needs assistants. Firstly, the Government halted the widespread custom of starting new teachers on the third or fourth – rather than the first – scale point.

Second, it also removed the ‘HDIP’ allowance for new teachers as part of a wider cull of allowances across the public service. The current Government shows no sign of unwinding these two teacher-specific measures, which greatly exacerbate the new entrant inequity in that profession.

For others, including special needs assistants and health and social care professionals, the problem is thankfully more straightforward. The process agreed in the proposed new pay agreement is well capable of dealing with the simpler challenge of removing two points from salary scales to boost new entrants’ incomes and ensure equality in the time it takes to reach the top.

For the first time the proposed Public Service Stability Agreement sees management acknowledge union concerns over the length of new entrant scales. And, if the agreement is accepted, unions that abide by the deal have a process to address the iniquity – and then implement a solution.

The new Public Service Stability Agreement will bring all special needs assistants (SNAs) out of the pay-cutting FEMPI legislation by 2020 if it’s accepted in union ballots now underway. The deal will mean increases of between €1,700 and €2,200 for SNAs, over three years, depending on where they are on the pay scale.

By the time the deal expires, all SNAs would be on higher pay than in 2010, before the pay cuts were imposed. SNAs who earn less than €34,500 will also be removed entirely from the pension levy, while those earning above that figure will see a significant reduction in their pension contribution – with a bigger reduction for those who joined the public service in 2011 or after.

IMPACT also secured a 12-month process to address the length of the scales for SNAs and others who joined the public service since 2011. The union believes this process can resolve the outstanding ‘new entrant’ issue among SNAs, although it won’t address issues that are exclusive to teachers.

The union wants to see the removal of two incremental points from each pay scale, which would mean faster progress up the scale and an equal scale-length for staff who joined the public service before and after 2011.

Meanwhile, IMPACT has written to education minister Richard Bruton about the unacceptable delays in publishing the SNA allocations for the 2017-2018 school year. The union is also campaigning on SNA job security and the fragmentation of SNA posts, while attendance arrangements and the appropriateness of work assigned to SNAs remain high on the education agenda.

IMPACT is also working on the issue of entry qualifications and continuous professional development for special needs assistants.

Ballot papers were sent to IMPACT’s SNAs by post last week. They must be returned, using the pre-paid envelope supplied, to arrive no later than noon on Friday 14^th July.

CORU professional registration fees will be frozen at their current rate of €100 a year if the proposed new pay deal is accepted. Health and social care professionals including social workers, dieticians, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists have to pay the annual registration fee before they can practise.

Physiotherapists also came under CORU registration last year, but IMPACT has been advising them not to register yet. Other health and social care professions, including social care workers, are due to come under CORU registration over time.

IMPACT successfully negotiated the CORU fee down from €295 to €100 a year under a previous agreement. The union insisted the cost must be frozen – at least until the deal expires at the end of 2020 – during the recent pay talks.

The union believes many health and social care professions could also stand to gain from the proposed review of recruitment and retention issues. Under the agreement, this would mean a study of the causes of recruitment and retention problems in named areas including physiotherapy, OT and speech and language therapy.

The recent report of the Public Service Pay Commission found that these three professions had significant retention issues, on a bigger scale than nurses.

Recent recruits to the health and social care professions could also gain from a process to deal with parity for staff who entered the public service in 2011 and after. IMPACT believes this process, which will be open to unions that accept the agreement, could lead to income improvements for recent entrants through a shortening of pay scales.

As well as these specific features, the proposed agreement would see health and social care professionals benefit from pay restoration worth up to 7.4% over the lifetime of the deal, plus a €575 reduction in the so-called pension levy.

IMPACT’s elected central executive committee has recommended acceptance of the deal. Voting closes on Friday 14^th July.

Read more about the proposed pay deal HERE.

Service officers, service attendants and cleaners are among the civil service staff who’ll benefit from increased annual leave if the recently-negotiated Public Services Stability Agreement is ratified in union ballots. Head service officers are also covered by the proposed improvements, which will go to all IMPACT grades equivalent to civil service executive officers, staff officers or clerical officers.

The amount of leave applicable to each grade will increase by one day after 12 years’ service, and a further one day after 14 years’ service. This is a total increase of two days leave, which would be applicable from January 2018.

A ballot of IMPACT members in public service and non-commercial semi-state organisations is now underway after the union’s elected Central Executive Committee (CEC) has unanimously recommended that members vote in favour of the deal.

The proposals would also deliver pay increases of up to 7.4% – skewed towards the lower paid – over the course of the three-year agreement. And it contains a commitment to retain existing strong protections against the outsourcing of public services. You can get full details of the proposals here.

You can see a list grades covered by the civil service leave proposal here.

IMPACT has secured a new contracts for court ushers, which will ensure they are not forced into early retirement. The ushers are to receive contracts of indefinite duration (CIDs) in the event that the judge, to whom they are appointed, retires.

IMPACT official Tony Martin explained: “There are about 40 ushers working in the courts, and each one was appointed to a particular judge when the judge was appointed. They work on what’s called a ‘co temporis’ contract, which obliges them to retire as and when the judge retires. This could be after a number of years of service but well before the retirement age that applies elsewhere in the Civil Service.”

Tony explained that one of the ushers, who had been working for ten years, was appointed to a judge who was due to retire earlier this year. “He received notice from the employer that, because the judge he was appointed to was due to retire, he was obliged to retire also. This is a member in his early fifties with ten years’ service. Forcing him to retire shows how the system is antiquated and needed to change,” he said.

Tony became aware that up to seven members were facing a similar situation, and raised the issue with the employer. “We reached an agreement that means ushers will be issued with CIDs, and will retain their service officer (SO) grade. This means they can remain as members of IMPACT and be redeployed within the Civil Service.”

IMPACT “will be the vehicle to instill pride in the social care profession,” according to the union’s deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan. He was speaking at the annual general meeting of IMPACT’s social care workers last Saturday, where union organiser Keivan Jackson launched IMPACT’s ‘Pride In Our Profession’ campaign.

The initiative aims to identify and unite IMPACT members working in social care, and then move on to a second phase called ‘protecting our profession.’ Keivan also presented the preliminary results of an IMPACT survey of 2,122 social care workers.

The findings, including some startling statistics around assaults on social care staff, will be published in the union’s Work & Life magazine next month.

Kevin Callinan, who previously worked as national secretary for the area, gave the meeting an overview of the challenges facing social care workers and detailed some of the major victories IMPACT has secured for staff in the sector. Assistant general secretary Chris Cully gave an update on CORU and placed a particular emphasis on TUSLA.

IMPACT held its first ever campaigning summer school earlier this month. Planned by lead organiser Joe O’Connor, the event was aimed at aspiring and accomplished union activists, and sought to provide them with a toolkit for their next campaign idea.

The summer school was formally opened on the Friday evening by IMPACT deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan. He provided an overview of the growing campaigning capabilities of the union.

There were four sessions on Friday.

Chris Rose, a campaigns and communications expert, delivered the first talk. He emphasised the need for meticulous planning before undertaking any campaign activities.

Ethel Buckley, divisional organiser at SIPTU, then shared the experience she gained working on the ‘Justice for the Clery’s Workers’ campaign and on a successful effort to organise Ireland’s women’s football team.

Next, the NUJ’s Seamus Dooley, along with Sandra Irwin-Gowran of Educate together, discussed what they had learned while working on the successful ‘Yes Equality’ campaign in the lead up to 2015’s marriage equality referendum. They focussed on the need to form strong alliances.

IMPACT’s communications officer, Niall Shanahan, then gave a presentation on influencing the media. He stressed the importance of gaining an understanding the changing dynamics and habits of the modern newsroom before attempting to influence it.

On Saturday, there were five sessions.

Pat Montague, director at Montague Communications, began the day with a talk on effective lobbying. He explained that understanding the arithmetic of any particular Oireachtas is central to understanding how best to go about influencing it.

Pat was followed by Viv Chambers and Dave Fanning whose firm Bricolage carries out research for campaigning organisations. Both Pat and Dave are trained as qualitative researchers and their emphasis was on approaching a problem from a wide range of angles and with a wide range of research methodologies.

The next session included Twitter’s Ronan Costello, Lee Daly a consultant who often works with Facebook, Claire O’Dowd of SpunOut.ie and IMPACT’s Lughan Deane. The focus of this session was on campaigning on social media.

There were then two parallel sessions – one given by architect Mel Reynolds on the housing crisis and one by IMPACT’s Ciairín de Buis on the childcare sector.  

The final talk was given by Michelle Thomas, an expert on training for public speaking. She spoke about how to appear as confident when delivering presentations to crowds.

Members in attendance at the event found it very useful. One member said that the “insight and guidance [she] gained from the speakers is invaluable” and that she was “already looking forward to next year’s camp.”

Another member said the event was “excellent and informative.”

A University of Gothenberg survey has found that Ireland’s public service is ranked first amongst EU member states for professionalism. It was also found to be the least politicised.

Meanwhile, an Institute of Public Administration paper has concluded that the Irish public service is freer from corruption than the EU average. It also scores better than the EU norm in encouraging competition and in ensuring that business is not hindered by bureaucracy.

These facts are reflected in public sentiment. Trust in public administration is six points higher than the EU average.

It’s important to note, in this context, that according to the IPA survey, Ireland spends the third least amongst EU member states on outsourcing. Outsourcing was a central issue in the recent pay talks. IMPACT and other unions succeeded in securing unparalleled protections against outsourcing in Ireland.

Industrial Relations News notes that “Ireland spends 6.5% of GDP on outsourcing public services, just marginally ahead of Latvia and Greece, and well behind the table topper the Netherlands, which spends 16.5%.”

However, the IPA also points out that the percentage of public servants employed in Ireland, relative to the overall workforce, is low. In 2013, 17.4% of Ireland’s workforce worked in the public sector. Only Italy, Portugal and Spain are below Ireland.

Former IMPACT official Pat Bolger recently accepted a Dublin Lord Mayor’s award on behalf of the workers of Dublin. Pat, pictured second from right, was there in his current capacity of president of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions.

Lord Mayor Brendan Carr, pictured centre, said: “The Lord Mayor’s Awards are all about saying ‘thank you’, not only on my own behalf, but on behalf of all the people of Dublin, to citizens who, through their ordinary, everyday lives, enrich this city in an extraordinary way.”

Pat retired as an IMPACT official last year, and was a highly regarded union activist throughout his career. Paralympian Ellen Keane, the Dublin GAA County Board, and broadcaster Joe Duffy were also honoured at the event which took place in Dublin’s Mansion House.