Local Government Updates
Date: 29/04/2022
To: Members of the Mid-West Local Government Branches
From: Mike McNamara
RE: National Updates
Dear Member,
Please see below national updates on matters that are relevant to your branch. Should members have any queries on these issues or other matters relevant to your grade please do not hesitate to contact your local branch for further assistance.
Government accepts HRA hours restoration
Fórsa has welcomed the recent announcement that the Government has accepted an independent body’s recommendation that public service employees’ working time should be restored to pre-austerity levels with effect from 1st July.
In a statement issued on 14th April, the Government also said that the health minister would engage with health sector unions “on the measures that are required to ensure safe implementation of the recommendations.”
Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said the recommendation – now set for implementation on 1st July – will remove a longstanding and debilitating drain on public service morale and productivity.
Building Momentum review gets started
Fórsa has been warning for months that unexpectedly high inflation was not a short-term problem. Earlier this year the union called for immediate Government action to protect living standards and stabilise the public service agreement, which expires in December.
Public expenditure minister Michael McGrath has said he will raise the issue of public service pay and inflation with the Cabinet, and that he then expects talks with unions to get underway.
Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan and other trade union leaders met senior Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) officials in recent weeks after the ICTU Public Services Committee (PSC) triggered a review clause in the Building Momentum public service agreement.
The meeting saw both sides set out general positions on the agreement’s pay terms in light of inflation and broader economic challenges. DPER officials are now expected to report back to the minister.
Council blended work framework agreed
Fórsa and local authority management have agreed a blended working framework for the sector, which will give all council staff the right to apply for remote or blended work. Local government workers will also be able to have the decision reviewed if they are turned down, with a view to resolving the issues that led to the refusal to facilitate remote work.
The framework was developed from the recently-launched civil service policy, which ensures that the decision-making process follows a consistent approach to assessing applications, and which ensures fairness across the organisation.
The new framework says that it is a matter for each local authority to develop its own blended working policy, which must be consistent with the agreed national framework.
The policy must consider the functional and operational needs of each council while having due regard to national and sectoral policy to ensure consistency. This consistency should reflect in the application of blended working to grades, roles, and functions across the sector while taking into account the individual service needs of each local authority.
Applications for blended working will be made via the performance management development system (PMDS), which will be used to assess the suitability of a role, function, task and applicant for blended working. It will then be assessed and approved by management on a case-by-case basis and will be subject to the operational needs of the organisation.
It also requires employees to complete a self-assessment form identifying any potential risk and confirming that their workstation meets the relevant health and safety requirements. An employer should also provide furniture and equipment if deemed reasonable and necessary for the employee’s work.
In its initial implementation blended working agreements will be for a trial period. In general, the trial period should last between 3-6 months. Thereafter each blended working arrangement will be reviewed regularly.
You can read the full framework HERE.
Carers leave and flexibilities to be extended
New legislation that will give parents and other carers five days of unpaid leave for their caring responsibilities was signed off by Cabinet earlier this week. The work-life balance bill will extend leave to workers who need to take time off to provide personal care or support to a relative.
The bill also extends to the right to request flexible or constricted work hours, for those with caring responsibilities. It also extends the current right to paid breastfeeding breaks from six months to two years, and extends existing maternity leave rights to transgender people who give birth.
Fórsa has previously expressed concern at the alarmingly low rates of take-up of these forms of leave, which is mainly due to the fact that it’s unpaid. But the union welcomed the proposed law as one of many measures needed to achieve a better work and home life balance for Irish parents, guardians and carers.
It is also understood that paid leave for domestic violence victims will be included as an amendment to the bill, though the details of this are still to be worked out.
Pilots to test blended work flexi-accrual
A civil service arbitration board has ruled on a disagreement between Fórsa and management on how the accrual of flexitime for those with blended work arrangements should be piloted.
Management argued that departments and offices should be able to choose from four different ways to pilot flexitime arrangements, including one option where no flexitime accrual was allowed and another where accrual was limited to one day of flexi-leave rather than the standard 1.5 days.
But the arbitration board ruled that departments and offices should be able to opt for one of only two approaches. One will pilot flexitime accrual for all employees in eligible grades, irrespective of work location. The other will pilot accrual only when staff are working in the office.
Since the outset of the pandemic, civil servants have been unable to accrue flexitime while working remotely. But Fórsa and other unions argued that flexitime accrual should now be available to staff with remote work arrangements under a new blended work framework launched earlier this month.
Under the new framework, agreed between Fórsa and the Department of Public Expenditure and reform (DPER), all civil servants will have the right to apply for remote or blended working. If refused, they will be able to appeal.
The arbitration board, which issued its report earlier this week, said a management proposal that some departments could pilot on the basis that staff with blended work arrangements should have no flexitime accrual “would not offer any additional insights…given that it is the current situation.”
The board noted that both management and unions favoured “the restoration of as comprehensive an approach to flexitime as possible.” It added that flexi accrual pilots should operate in all applicable work locations over the coming months, and be concluded by 31st December 2022.
Read the agreed civil service blended work framework HERE.
Remembering those killed at work
ICTU president and Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan joined representatives of the Government, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and employers’ bodies’ to mark ‘workers’ memorial day’ yesterday the 28th April.
The annual commemorative event, took place at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1 at 8.45am, to remember those killed or injured in workplace accidents.
Last year, 38 people lost their lives in workplace related accidents and almost 500 were killed in work-related incidents over the last decade. Many thousands were severely injured.
In Ireland, Workers’ Memorial Day received official state recognition in 2015, courtesy of the then Minister for Business & Employment, Ged Nash TD. It is now a truly national event, marked annually by Congress, IBEC, the Health & Safety Authority and government.
This year’s memorial also recognised the many workers whose lives were claimed by Covid-19 over the last two years.
In the words of the Cork-born, US union activist, Mary Harris “Mother Jones” “Remember the Dead, Fight like hell for the Living”
Yours Fraternally
Mike McNamara
AGS Mid-West Region
Fórsa Mid-West Update 