Working Time, Central government, Ireland

Members of public sector unions have voted by a large majority to accept the pay agreement negotiated earlier this year. The agreement runs from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2026 and provides for pay improvements worth 9.25% but because of flat-rate elements this rises to 17.3% for lower paid workers. This agreement also provides specific provisions for local bargaining, which will give trade unions the scope to negotiate up to an additional 3% of pay costs, inclusive of allowances, for particular grades, groups or categories of employee. The agreement also sees the full and final unwinding of

Fórsa, SIPTU, INMO, AHCPS and other public service unions are consulting their members over the latest pay offer from the government which would provide for a series of pay increases over a 30-month period from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2026. The unions have until 25 March to complete the ballots. If an aggregate of the members of all the unions vote in favour then the agreement would provide the following pay increases: in 2024 – 2.25% or €1,125, whichever is greater, from 1 January; 1% on 1 June; 1% or €500, whichever is greater, on 1 October; in 2025 – 2% or €1,000, whichever is greater, on

Public services unions, including Fórsa, SIPTU and INMO, were very disappointed with the government’s initial pay offer as part of the negotiations for a new, multi-year public sector collective agreement. The unions say that the offer revealed the lack of preparedness of the government to negotiate a sustainable deal. The unions argue that the offer of 7% with 1.5% payable in March this year, fails to meet the basic test of dealing with the cumulative gap between wages and inflation – amounting to almost 19% over the last three years. The unions are concerned about the painfully slow process

The Fórsa trade union reports that the breakdown of public sector negotiations in December, has led to public service unions planning possible ballots on industrial action. The 19 trade unions that make up the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions are set to meet on 11 January to decide whether to ballot if there is no progress on negotiations with the government. Negotiations mainly on issues other than pay began at the end of November with 11 meetings taking place up to Christmas but without conclusion and without moving on to pay bargaining. The previous public

The results of a pilot project on the 4-day week involving a range of companies in Ireland show the potential for how a shorter working week can contribute to a better work-life balance and increased well-being for workers. The pilot was backed by the Fórsa public services union which welcomed the results and the fact that the employers in the project were all planning to continue the 4-day week arrangements. Alongside the benefits for workers, particularly women, there were also mainly positive results in terms of productivity, company revenues and some savings on energy costs. The 4-day week

Fórsa, SIPTU, INMO and other public service unions will be consulting their members over a pay offer from the government that has come following trade union insistence that the pay review clause in the existing collective agreement, Building Momentum, be invoked to address surging inflation. Building Momentum included a 1% pay increase (or €500, whichever is greater) from next month. The new proposal would see pay increases of 3% backdated to 2 February 2022, 2% from 1 March 2023 and 1.5% or €750 (whichever is greater) from 1 October 2023. Fórsa estimates that assuming the minimum payment of

Public services union Fórsa has welcome the government’s decision to accept an independent body’s recommendation for working time to be restored to pre-austerity levels for virtually all public servants from 1 July 2022. The additional working hours were imposed in July 2013, increasing the standard working time of civil and public servants to 39 hours for those who previously worked between 35 and 37 hours, and to 37 hours for those who previously worked 35 hours or less. The hours of those working 39 hours or more per week were unchanged. The independent body said it had taken account of the

With inflation hitting a 21-year high of 5.6%, Kevin Callinan, head of the Fórsa public service union, has called for the current “Building momentum” public sector agreement to be reviewed. Under the agreement public service pay will increase by just 1.2% this year. The agreement has an opening clause and Callinan argues that both the high level of inflation and more positive situation for the public finances justify the review. Meanwhile, members of the Medical Laboratory Scientists’ Association (part of the SIPTU trade union) will take strike action on 30 March unless the Department of

Public service trade unions Fórsa, SIPTU and INMO have welcomed the decision to pay a €1000 tax-free bonus to all those who worked in clinical, COVID-exposed environments and in a separate development to reduce working time for public service workers to pre-austerity levels. From 1 July this year public servants working full-time will return to the 35-hour week that applied before 2013 when austerity measures were introduced in response to the 2008-09 economic and financial crisis. This decision is also seen as partly in recognition of the efforts made during the pandemic. The government has

The Fórsa and SIPTU public service unions have welcomed the government’s new ‘Blended Working Policy Statement,’ which would see the civil service switch from pandemic-related remote working provisions to long-term ‘blended working’ arrangements between September 2021 and March 2022. However, both unions want to see a rapid roll-out across the entire public service, rather than being confined to Government departments and agencies. They also underline the importance of some of the statement’s key points such as the commitment to a consistent approach and to transparency and fairness on access

The Fórsa public service union is urging its members to back the four-day week campaign by signing up to a global petition to encourage employers to pilot a four-day working week. The initiative seeks to identify and recruit employers to trial a shorter working week without loss of pay or productivity. The aim will be to reach out to employers identified with significant employee support and encourage them to join the global pilot in 2022. Participating employers will receive the support of experts from the four-day week organisation and university researchers from Harvard, Oxford and Boston

Additional unpaid working time introduced as an austerity measure eight years ago continues to be a drain on morale and productivity across the civil and public service. That’s according to a report by the public service committee of the ICTU confederation. The report says the additional hours fall hardest on women, and are counterproductive in terms of service delivery and productivity. They remain “a deep and primary industrial relations grievance” among public servants, it says. In particular, the report argues not only that It has never been correct to assume that increased working time

Public services union Fórsa has written to the chief executives of all local authorities to ask them to engage with four-day week pilot programmes. This is the latest move in the union’s campaign for reduced working time without loss of pay or productivity. Fórsa is part of a coalition of employers, unions, environmental and women’s campaign groups, which is calling for a gradual, steady and managed transition to a shorter working week in all sectors of the economy. The union will also be talking to the government about support for the initiative and is hoping to involve public and private

Public services union Fórsa has asked the government to open negotiations over an agreement on remote working. The union notes that there have been some positive outcomes from the recent increase in telework as a result of the pandemic, but an agreement is needed to regulate what could be a long-term shift in the organisation of work across the public sector. Fórsa has set out some key elements for the agreement which include, among others: agreed guidelines for identifying functions that can be performed remotely; fair access and the right to request remote work; right to decline remote work

Public service trade unions have negotiated a new two-year agreement which will now be considered by each union’s national executive and put out to ballot of all individual members. The national executive of the Fórsa trade union has already decided to recommend the agreement to its members. The two-year agreement will run from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022 and there will be a general pay increase of 1% or EUR 500, whichever is higher, in October of both years. In February 2022, an additional 1% will be available in sector bargaining funds. The agreement also provides for progress in