The dispute has renewed the focus on waste management practices for the first time since the decision by Dublin City Council to hand over Dublin’s waste collection services to private operators in January 2012. In a report in the Irish Times today (Friday), the company is described as “the recidivist offenders of the waste management industry.” The newspaper reports that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, is to launch a review of the sector on foot of the dispute.

Support

Trade unions, including IMPACT, have backed calls to support the Greyhound workers. A petition, calling on Greyhound’s chief executive to stop using strikebreaking tactics and negotiate with staff, has been set up on the Change.org website. Siptu have asked IMPACT members to sign the petition and to ‘like’ the Justice for Greyhound Workers page on Facebook.

You can also download a copy of the ‘Justice for Greyhound Workers’ poster here.

A long-standing IMPACT campaign to win strong protections for workplace whistleblowers will soon come to fruition when the Protected Disclosures Bill becomes law. The Bill had completed the Oireachtas process and was awaiting the President’s signature as this bulletin went to press.

The new law will provide a framework of protections for people who are victimised, or threatened with victimisation, for revealing illegal practices in the workplace.  But workers must meet proper criteria to ensure that their revelations are ‘protected disclosures’ under the law.

Employers will be legally barred from victimising or sacking staff for making protected disclosures. Importantly, IMPACT’s core demand that the law should prevent employers from sacking staff pending the outcome of a case has been met.

Whistleblowers who are unfairly dismissed for making a protected disclosure will be able to seek a court order preventing the employer taking them off the payroll while a case is being heard. The maximum penalty for unfair dismissal in protected disclosure cases has also been set at five years pay – far more than the usual two years.

Reasonable

Employees will be protected from victimisation or dismissal when they disclose a ‘reasonable belief’ of illegality to their employer or a person prescribed under the act. Employees will also be immune from civil and criminal legal proceedings in such cases.

In line with union demands, the scope of the wrongdoing covered is much wider than just financial misdemeanours. It includes all illegality including health and safety breaches and failure to meet laws on minimum wages and other working conditions.

The legislation will also allow for external disclosure – for instance, to the media or a politician – in some cases, although there are tougher criteria to determine whether such disclosures are protected.

All public bodies will be required to publish guidelines about how they will deal with protected disclosures.

Advice

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions says workers are best advised to talk to their union rep before making a disclosure to ensure that they proceed correctly and gain the protections of the new law. Congress is currently drawing up a model whistleblowing policy for enterprises. The Labour Relations Commission is also drawing up guidelines.

IMPACT national secretary Matt Staunton, who worked with ICTU on the issue, says the Irish legislation is strong by international standards. “This legislation will at last give genuine protection to workers who, in good faith, reveal illegality or suspected illegality in the workplace. The ability to prevent bad employers from sacking staff in genuine cases of whistleblowing is a particularly important victory for trade unions and everyone who genuinely wants to tackle illegal practices at work,” he said.

IMPACT will be publishing a guide to the new act on its website once the legislation is enacted.

Health service clerical, administrative and management staffing levelsshows that clerical, administrative and management staff make up just 15.5% of total health service personnel – down from 16% in July 2009.

But only 13% of staff in the category work in corporate and shared services, while well over 85% of them provide direct support to those performing ‘front-line’ roles.

The IMPACT paper, which draws on official HSE personnel census figures, shows that by far the largest number of health service clerical, administrative and management staff work in acute hospital services (over 47% of the total) and non-acute hospital services (over 33% of the total).

The figures also show that, between March 2009 and July 2013, clerical, administrative and management staff numbers fell by more than any other category of health staff except ‘general support staff’. The biggest reductions were at the lowest-paid level of clerical officer and the highest levels of management.

IMPACT national secretary Louise O’Donnell presented the paper to the union’s Health and Welfare council, which includes reps from all the union’s health service branches, earlier this month.  “Most admin staff are working at the so-called front line, and those who don’t are providing vital back-up in IT, finance, HR and other important support functions. Clerical and admin staffing has been cut to the bone in most areas, yet we still keep hearing politicians and commentators say there are too many administrators. IMPACT is going to use these figures to continue to debunk that myth,” she said.

The figures include staff in the HSE, major hospitals and some voluntary agencies.

Speaking after a general meeting of over 300 IMPACT members in Tallaght on Wednesday afternoon, national secretary Peter Nolan said the union’s objectives had been met. “We sought the restoration of the payments cut from staff in April, and we sought an independent review of the staffing structure of South Dublin County Council. The proposals tabled this morning by the LRC address both of these issues,” he said.

Peter said that the outcome of the LRC discussions represented a substantial achievement. “Throughout this dispute I was particularly impressed with the solidarity shown by our members, which made it possible to achieve the result we have today,” he said.

Shane Lambert, cathaoirleach of IMPACT’s Local Government division, who works in the council, said members had responded positively to the LRC proposals. “The mood in the room was one of positivity, reflecting that we’d achieved our aims,” he said.

He said members had been determined to resist management’s imposition of cuts to allowances. “My colleagues expressed their determination to resist the unilateral actions of management. It has been a difficult couple of months for everyone involved. They took strike action in response to what they saw was an injustice and I’m really moved by how they stuck together throughout this,” he said.

Under the proposals, the LRC will chair a review of the staffing structure in the council. Unions and management will make submissions on the workforce plan, with a review to be completed by early September. In the meantime, staff who had acting payments withdrawn will have the money restored.

The Haddington Road agreement has already delivered over 75% of the €1 billion savings required, even though the deal still has almost two years to run. New figures outlined in a Dáil answer this week revealed that €762 million of savings had already been made or “incorporated into the budgetary arithmetic” in 2013 and 2014.

Of the total €1 billion savings, €342 million will come from central measures in the form of temporary cuts to higher pay (€220 million), increment deferrals (€60 million) and other measures.  Productivity measures, including headcount reduction and reduced overtime and agency working, will account for €431 million. Finally, €220 million will come from sector-specific measures.

The Dáil answer also reveals that, by the end of this year, the public service pay bill will have fallen by 22% since 2009 – from €17.5 billion to €13.6 billion.

Most respondents (87%) said they visited the site mainly to get news updates. Salary scales and other information on terms and conditions of employment also scored highly at 56%.

Many users (59%) said they visited the site on a monthly basis, while 39% said they visited weekly. Comments from respondents suggest that the fortnightly e-bulletin, social media links and branch correspondence drive most  visits to the site, and that most visitors are specifically interested in their own sector of work.

Haddington Road information was also valued highly. Analysis of the traffic to the site suggests that the Haddington Road information is also popular beyond the union’s membership, with over 70,000 unique users seeking information on the HRA last year.

Some respondents suggested we include more sectoral stories, and stories about individual members. A few also suggested the inclusion of a discussion forum for members.

The website’s design also scored well, with 64% of respondents giving it the thumbs-up. The content of the site was rated highly by 74% of respondents. Navigation of the site was described as ‘easy’ by 60% of respondents, although 28% said some information was hard to find.

 Social media growth

Meanwhile, there has been significantly more activity around IMPACT’s social media presence – on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter – in the past year.

Recent disputes in Aer Lingus and South Dublin County Council prompted many messages of solidarity to members involved, with lots of material shared and ‘liked’ across all platforms.

Facebook’s measurement of ‘reach’ (the number of people who see IMPACT content in their Facebook timelines) shows many tens of thousands of people looking at IMPACT content during these disputes.

You can 'like' IMPACT on Facebook, follow on Twitter or subscribe to our YouTube channel by following the links at the top right corner of this e-bulletin.

The draft policy would allow airlines outside of the EU and US to pick up passengers at Irish airports for onward travel to the United States. IALPA President Evan Cullen said this would allow airlines outside the EU and US to compete directly with airlines that employ members in Ireland.

“Having examined the trading conditions involved in this sort of arrangement, it’s very clear that these airlines would be operating with the help of several unfair advantages over airlines based in the EU,” he said.

IALPA has sent a template letter to members, and has asked members to send a copy to TDs.

The closing date for submissions to this draft policy document is Wednesday 30th July 2014.

Letter

The letter to TDs says: “At present, under the US-EU “Open Skies” agreement, any EU airline is free to operate through Irish airports with passenger pick-up rights in Ireland and onward to the US. In this respect, Ireland is well served as a point of access between the US and all parts of the EU.

“If the proposed approach is adopted I am concerned that it will pose a threat both to my own job security and that of my colleagues. I’m further concerned that this proposal will serve, in the long term, to erode our terms and conditions of employment.

“While the draft policy states that it will “take account of EU criteria on fair competition” in any bilateral negotiations on these arrangements, I am genuinely concerned that this will be wholly ineffective in preventing damage to the jobs and working conditions of people employed in the Irish aviation industry.

“Those working in the aviation industry will acknowledge that airlines based outside the EU and US do not operate with the same cost base as airlines in the EU and US. The difference in cost base is due to differences in taxation, employment rights and significantly different regulatory environments.

Minimum wage

“For example, airlines from the UAE are not subject to minimum wage or equality legislation, and employer social insurance charges. Some of these airlines operate with some very outdated policies including, for example, automatic dismissal in the event that a member of staff is married. Moreover, many of these airlines enjoy considerable state support in terms of financing, fuel, home base airport charges and regulatory oversight.

“In short, with equal access to this market, these airlines would be competing with us on uneven playing pitch with conditions in their favour.

“As a worker in this industry I have demonstrated a willingness to be flexible and to accommodate change in a rapidly changing industry. It hasn’t been easy but my colleagues and I have worked hard to stay in business and to compete on an open market, and to keep Irish airlines and consumers to the fore.”

For more information on how to get involved with the campaign please contact admin@ialpa.net

The figure was calculated by the Living Wage Technical Group, which includes the trade union-backed Nevin Economic Research Institute, the TASC think tank, Social Justice Ireland and the Vincentian Partnership.

The living wage figure is a calculation of what’s needed for an individual to cover the cost of food, clothes, housing, health, education, transport and recreation. The group intends to update the living wage rate on an annual basis. 

IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody said the living wage was an important reference point for trade unions, policymakers and the business community. “The calculation of a living wage reveals what it costs for a person to live with dignity. But it also it tells us what it takes to generate the kind of economic growth the country needs. Any sector that relies on driving wages down is denying this opportunity to workers and strangling growth at the same time. This will be a factor in union wage campaigns in the private, public and community sectors over the coming years,” he said.

TASC director Nat O’Connor said promoting a living wage was necessary to tackle economic inequality in Ireland. “Full-time employment is an important response to economic inequality, but there is a growing split in Ireland between those with good jobs and those in insecure, part-time or low paid employment. Part-time or low paid work can perpetuate inequality,” he said.

Living wage calculations have been embraced by business and politicians across the spectrum in other jurisdictions including London. “They provide an evidence-based calculation of the cost of living and public bodies and companies have pledged to be living wage employers. I hope similar support for the concept of a living wage can be generated in Ireland too," said O’Connor.

SIPTU economist Marie Sherlock said the living wage calculation represented an important starting point in the battle to improve living standards. “It follows on from efforts made in the UK, the US and elsewhere to calculate a minimum acceptable standard of living for workers. And it casts a sharp light on the significant gap between wage rates prevailing in certain low paid sectors of the Irish economy and the national minimum wage,” she said.

TASC policy analyst Cormac Staunton said the gap between the living wage and the statutory minimum left many people struggling to get by.  “Paying people a living wage would allow them to increase spending on day-to-day items, which will also be good for business and employment,” he said.

A dedicated website has been established - www.livingwage.ie - which includes a technical document detailing how the Living wage has been calculated.

The Workplace Relations Commission will deal with all complaints in the first instance, while the Labour Court will deal with appeals. The legislation is due to be enacted by the end of the year.

The bodies set to be merged into the new structure are the Labour Relations Commission, the National Employment Rights Authority, the Equality Tribunal, the Employment Appeals Tribunal and the Labour Court.

The new arrangement is designed to simplify the system, make it easier to use and understand, and reduce delays. It is also hoped that the new system will be less ‘legalistic’ and, therefore, less expensive to use. Savings of about €2 million (10%) are expected to flow from the change.

There has been substantial consultation with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and employers’ bodies over the new structures.

The figures also show a decrease of 8,650 (4.4%) in the number of long term claimants, compared to a year ago. However the number of women long-term claimants has increased slightly.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions welcomed the drop in the jobless rate, but warned that unemployment in Ireland remains unacceptably high and is well above average rates across Europe.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has this week welcomed the Irish Government’s ratification of an International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention on domestic workers’ rights, hailing it as “a major advance for domestic workers and their right to decent work.”

Congress legislation and legal affairs officer Esther Lynch said a “coordinated and intensive” campaign had moved the Government. “Ratification of the convention will help ensure that domestic workers enjoy a right to decent work, and the Irish Government can now be held accountable for upholding that right at the ILO,” she said.

The ILO is a United Nations body made up of representatives of unions, employers and governments.

This year, ten IMPACT members and officials cycled between Limerick city and the union’s biennial May conference in Killarney. The union’s central executive committee agreed to match funds generously donated by IMPACT members and branches.

The money raised will be divided equally among three cancer research and awareness organisations: The Arc Cancer Support Centre in Dublin, the Milford Hospice Foundation in Limerick, and the Kerry Hospice Foundation.

Thanking cyclists and those who donated, event organiser Dessie Robinson said some of the cash would go towards a new 15-bed unit being planned for Tralee by the Kerry Hospice Foundation. “Without the generosity of IMPACT delegates at conference, our branches and the union centrally we could not have raised such significant amounts of money. This will make such as difference,” he said.

In previous years money raised by the event has gone to suicide awareness groups and rape crisis centres.