Civil service unions to explore cooperation
by Bernard Harbor
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IMPACT and other civil service unions have agreed to explore improved coordination in a range of areas from the provision of financial services to better cooperation in negotiations on pay and conditions. The initiative follows a joint meeting of the executives of IMPACT, the PSEU, CPSU, AHCPS and the Veterinary Officers’ Association earlier this summer.
A joint committee is to be established to look at shared benefit schemes, while executive committee representatives who represent similar grades in each union will meet to discuss issues of common interest. Meanwhile, each union will assign an official to discuss the possibility of sharing responsibilities in negotiations. The intention is to develop an agreed paper on future collaborative steps.
Meanwhile, there will be further joint meetings of the executives of the five unions.
The initial meeting was called in the context of a report of a commission on Irish trade unions, established by ICTU, which found that the structure of the trade union movement – including the number of trade unions – was reducing its effectiveness. The report was unanimously adopted by the ICTU conference last year.
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