Local authority workers are to suspend planned industrial action in an ongoing dispute with the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) over their refusal to establish a job evaluation scheme, to allow for talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

Fórsa and the LGMA have formally requested that the WRC urgently reconvene conciliation on the issue of job evaluation in the local government sector.

Fórsa members working in local authorities were due to begin their campaign of industrial action next week, commencing with an indefinite ban on engagement on all political representations (both verbal and written) from Wednesday the 21st June 2023, followed by a telephone ban on Thursday 22nd June 2023, to include the use of work landline and mobile phones, work telephone calls via online platforms such as MS teams, and work calls via social media platforms such as WhatsApp phone/video, and the use of personal mobile phones for work issues.

Fórsa’s Head of Local Government and Local Services Richy Carrothers said both the employer and union have committed to engaging meaningfully and constructively to resolve this issue over the coming weeks. 

“To that end, the union and employer has made a joint referral   requesting that the WRC arrange urgent conciliation with both parties as a matter of urgency. Both sides have committed to engaging meaningfully and constructively to resolve this dispute over the coming weeks,” he said.

The union formally served notice to the LGMA management earlier this month (1st June), after members working in local authorities voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action, up to and including strike action.

The union represents more than 10,000 local government and services workers including clerical, administrative, management, technical and professional staff.

Job evaluation, which has been established in the health and higher education sectors, is a process for measuring the relative worth of posts in an organisation based on the work a post-holder is doing or is expected to do. It is carried out so that fair levels of pay for different jobs can be set, rather than be based on subjective criteria or assumptions. Local authority workers in Britain and in Northern Ireland have had access to job evaluation for decades.

Fórsa maintains that local authority workers continue to take responsibility for additional duties and responsibilities assigned to them during the economic crisis, when 10,000 jobs were lost from the sector.

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