Council workers begin industrial action

Fórsa, the trade union for council administrative staff, has announced their members will not deal with political representations from councillors and TDs from today (Monday).

Fórsa members in local authorities are taking industrial action, as part of their dispute to achieve job evaluation in the sector.

The move has caused huge concern to local politicians who have appealed for council staff to at least talk to them about housing matters.

Cllr Nick Killian, a Meath representative on the Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) urged the union to allow councillors make representations on housing.

"This is an area that causes a lot of heartache for constituents. They come to all councillors with housing problems and we need to still be able to deal with those.

"As councillors we need to be able to get answers. particularly for those on the housing list."

He said Meath County Council has great staff, who have always beent here to help councillors help the people they represent.

Cllr Killian said the unions had every right to fight for their concerns, but it was regrettable tha tit had got to this stage.

He pointed out that as councillors, they have no say in staff matters or into the hiring of staff, which is the main issue in the dispute.

Cllr Killian says both sides must now get around the table before people who need the council's services most will begin to suffer.

Clr Damien O'Reilly said the action will have an awful affect on turnaround times assisting members of the public.

"People expect long delays from any council representations if this action continues."

Forsa members working in the local authority sector voted for industrial action by over 85 per cent .

According to a statement from the union, this follows "the abject failure of the sector management to engage meaningfully in the resolution of the dispute, despite having committed to doing so in the joint referral to the Workplace Relations Commission."

Both the Local government Management Agency and Fórsa have requested that the Workplace relations Commission (WRC) urgently reconvene conciliation on the issue of job evaluation in the local government sector.

The initial industrial action will commence with an indefinite ban on engagement on all non-statutory political representations (verbal, email and written) from the 11th September 2023.

The dispute centres around Job Evaluation, a process for working out the relative worth (grade for the job) of posts in an organisation based on what the 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.

The union claims that council services were only maintained after the financial crisis, as its members took on additional responsibilities and this has resulted in a "significant grade drift" in the sector.

Fórsa has stated that industrial action will continue to escalate if employers fail to engage meaningfully with the union on this dispute.