Fórsa will announce its intention today to establish a professional institute for special needs assistants (SNAs). The institute would set professional standards, support training, and underpin the validation of qualifications in a push to improve provision to children with special needs by further professionalising the SNA role.
This year’s event focuses on the future role of special needs assistants, against the background of a soon-to-be published National Council for Special Education review of Ireland’s model of support for students with special education needs.
Fórsa represents 12,000 workers in the education sector. These include SNAs, school secretaries and caretakers, early education professionals, school completion staff, staff in education centres and the National Educational Welfare Board, and clerical, administrative and management staff in institutes of technology (IoTs) and education and training boards (ETBs).
President Michael D Higgins will address the opening session of Fórsa’s first-ever national delegate conference, which takes place in Killarney in May. The conference will see hundreds of delegates, representing all the union’s branches, set policy and elect Fórsa officers for the first time.
The Government must consider bringing Dublin’s privatised waste services back into public control if it’s serious about tackling fly-tipping, according to Fórsa. The union was responding to comments by Government minister Denis Naughten, who was defending his administration’s poor record on illegal dumping.
Fórsa wants pay scales shortened as quickly as possible for staff who joined the public service after January 2011. The union has said a new talks process, agreed before Saint Patrick’s weekend, must lead to equal treatment for all public servants by removing two points from new entrant pay scales.
Fórsa has demanded the reinstatement of tax relief on individual workers’ trade union subscriptions, which was worth €70 a year to union members when it was abolished in 2011.
A far higher percentage of unionised private companies will increase pay this year when compared to non-union firms, according to a new study. The annual private sector pay survey, produced jointly by Industrial Relations News (IRN) and the CIPD, found that 72% of unionised firms expect to raise earnings in 2018, compared to just 49% of non-union firms.
The first meeting of a group set up to deal with Fórsa’s claim for the restoration of ‘twilight payments’ met last week. The payment – which saw staff paid at ‘time and one-sixth’ for working between six and eight o’clock in the evening – was discontinued in 2011.
Fórsa has warned senior management that it will take action unless there is immediate engagement with the union on discriminatory treatment of Traveller workers at the Leitrim Development Company.
Following publication of our recent article about the union’s breakthrough on permanent contracts for temporary staff working on the public service card, Fórsa has been fielding queries from clerical officers.
Fórsa has suspended its proposed industrial action at Sunbeam House Services after management agreed to a number of measures to expedite pay restoration at the Wicklow disability service providers.
The joint presidents of Fórsa today issued a statement supporting student protests against extortionate repeat fees and other ‘hidden’ charges on students at Trinity College Dublin. The union also condemned moves to prevent student protesters from accessing food, water and toilet facilities, and calls on management at Trinity to refrain from disproportionate responses to legitimate student protest.
Fórsa has called on the Government to give clear advice to older people and other vulnerable groups about the financial supports they can expect from community welfare services if snow, ice and frosty weather return at the weekend.
Civil and public service managers are now obliged to consider the use of mediation when dealing with most workplace and contract disputes. The new policy applies to all civil service departments and offices, which are also required to bring it to the attention of bodies operating under their aegis.
Dublin City Council water and drainage crews, who have been working tirelessly to fix leaks and burst pipes on foot of last week’s weather emergency, say disruption to water services is coming under control and will be completely resolved in two to three weeks.
Unions representing health workers met with the HSE yesterday (Wednesday 7th March) to examine severe weather protocols, following last week’s status red weather notice.
The HSE staff panel of unions is composed of the INMO, Siptu, Fórsa, IMO, MLSA, Connect and Unite trade unions. Yesterday’s meeting with the HSE’s human resources staff was arranged to look at issues arising in the HSE and in HSE-funded service providers as a result of the extreme weather.
Fórsa has welcomed the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities. The convention was ratified by the Dáil yesterday (Wednesday 7th March 2018). The union is calling on the Government to introduce a range of measures to support employment of people with disabilities.
This month marks the deadline set by Minister for Education Richard Bruton for the review led by the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) of the Special Needs Assistant (SNA) scheme.
Fórsa's deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan says the review has been shrouded in secrecy, and warns against changes away from diagnosis-driven access to SNA support. Any attempt to remove or diminish access to additional care support for children with special education needs would be a cause of grave concern for the union and its members.
Fórsa has finally agreed the introduction of vehicle monitoring in Revenue enforcement vehicles after establishing clear conditions for the operation of the system.
The re-municipalisation of privatised refuse and waste services could reduce costs for households and businesses, while improving pay and working conditions for staff, according to a new study published by the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU).
Fórsa trade union’s School Secretaries' branch has launched a survey aimed at members and non-members throughout the country. The purpose of the survey is to assist Fórsa officials in gaining further insight into the many daily challenges encountered by school secretaries.
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP) has agreed to give permanent contracts to a number of temporary staff working on its public service card project.
Fórsa has raised staffing issues linked to the extension of the Cork City Council boundary into areas now run by Cork County Council with management in both authorities. The union is strongly advocating for a joint management-union forum, involving both councils, to discuss this and related matters.
Health minister agrees with Fórsa re: snow absence
Following representations from Fórsa yesterday and this morning, health minister Simon Harris has agreed that “anyone who can’t get to work or whose workplace is closed will receive emergency leave with pay and will not have to make up time.”
Fórsa is seeking the same commitment from all employers.
