Water, Work-life balance, Ireland

Four days of strike action by workers at Roscommon council in the West of Ireland have lead to the restoration of the right to flexi-leave that had been removed by the council's management. The workers, organised by the Fórsa and SIPTU trade unions, had carried out a series of four one-day strikes and further action was planned in order to secure rights which are enjoyed across the rest of the local government sector and which are important in ensuring a good work-life balance, particularly for working parents. EPSU had sent a solidarity message.

Workers at Roscommon Council in the west of Ireland, members of the Fórsa trade union, have begun a series of strikes in order to win back their rights to flexileave. The right is seen as important, particularly for working parents and is being denied to Roscommon workers despite it being a right enjoyed across local government, endorsed in the national agreement and supported by a ruling of the Labour Court. The local government workers have taken two days of strike action and organised a protest march. They will continue to strike every Tuesday and Thursday. EPSU and other union

Following votes across all the public sector unions, a majority (14), accounting for 80% by membership supported the new agreement on pay and conditions with three voting against. The three-year deal includes six pay increases (two targeted at the lower paid only) and will mean that the majority of public sector workers (73%) will see an overall increase of 7% by the end of the agreement. There is a range of other conditions that have been confirmed as part of the deal including the retention of outsourcing protections, the option to negotiate on returning to a shorter working week and

Public services union Fórsa believes that working time should be an important element of any discussion around telework/remote working. The union is preparing a response to a government consultation on remote working as well as a guide for negotiators. It is estimated that up to a third of employees in Ireland were remote working at the height of the COVID-19 emergency and the union now wants to ensure that conditions for telework are fully negotiated with proper safeguards and that emergency arrangements are not simply made permanent.

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

In three separate disputes, members of the Fórsa and SIPTU trade unions have voted in favour of industrial action. In the ambulance service, SIPTU members voted with a 95% majority to back industrial action following the refusal of management to implement a restructuring plan that had been negotiated with and was fully supported by the union. Meanwhile, SIPTU members in the water sector will take strike action on 7 June unless there is a guarantee that their local authority pay and conditions will be protected when they transfer to a new employer, Uisce Éireann, a new standalone public utility

The SIPTU trade union has announced dates for industrial action by water workers and retained (part-time) firefighters in June. Water workers currently employed by local authorities face restructuring as a new national water company is established. The dispute is over the failure of local authorities to guarantee the protection of all pay and conditions if the workers choose to remain with their local authority. The firefighters’ action is over pay and the serious staff shortages in the sector which are putting extra pressure on existing staff who often forego holidays in order to ensure cover

A nationwide strike on 7 June by SIPTU members in local authority water services was averted following the decision by the government to guarantee that any workers who do not want to transfer to the new public water company, Uisce Éireann, will have all their earnings protected. The key issue for the union was to secure the guarantee in relation to workers’ allowances and overtime payments they accrue currently as part of their work. Meanwhile, INMO and other health unions have called for the extension of the temporary special leave with pay scheme for workers with COVID to be extended. The

After the surge in remote working as a result of the pandemic, trade unions in Ireland, Russia and Spain have welcomed new initiatives, including legislation and collective agreements, that regulate telework. Research by the Eurofound research agency also looks into the negative and positive implications of telework for workers’ autonomy and work-life balance raising again the challenges to ensure that workers have control over their working time and underlining the importance of current discussions at European level on the right to disconnect.