Dear members,

Yesterday evening I announced to delegates at the Local Government and Local Services divisional conference in Letterkenny that we have made a significant step forward in our negotiations to achieve a fair job evaluation scheme for local authority workers.

This has been a priority for our division for over 15 years.

10,000 jobs were lost from the local authority sector at the height of the financial crisis. Since then, many of our members have been working over and above their grade and pay. 

Denying local authority workers an independent and analytical process to evaluate their pay is unfair and unreasonable. It was never going to be sustainable. 

Following the industrial action you took in 2023 we have been engaged in intensive discussions with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the Local Government Management Authority (LGMA) and the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). 

The WRC has now issued a document you can read here. As negotiators, we have left nothing on the table. We believe this major development will deliver a job evaluation scheme in the sector.

While there is some way to go and there is intensive work required over the coming months, we have never been closer. 

We will continue to work diligently and to do our best for members by ensuring that we deliver what you have demanded and what you deserve. The local government sector needs to work in good faith and collaboratively with Fórsa. 

The WRC document outlines that broad agreement has been reached under the following headings:

• The parties are working towards the implementation of a job evaluation scheme based on the mechanics of the existing Higher Education scheme but tailored to the specific and unique requirements of the Local Authority sector.
• The principles of objectivity, transparency, impartiality and quality assurance will apply.
• The scheme will be operated centrally and jointly.
• The purpose of the scheme will be to evaluate the post, not the individual performance of the person currently in the post.
• A pilot will take place in the first instance before the scheme is launched nationally.
• The WRC has identified a number of steps to be taken before the launch of a pilot scheme, including an engagement between the parties on agreement on job descriptions to benchmark evaluations against, assessors and the process of the assessment and agreement on quality assurance.

To be clear, this latest development was only possible because our members stood up to fight for this claim which is just and fair. You made it clear that this issue wouldn’t go away and that our members in local authorities deserve to be paid for the work you actually do.

We will continue to update you on negotiations.

In solidarity,

Richy Carrothers
National Secretary, Local Government and Local Services, and Municipal Employees’ Division