Over 30 TDs and 40 councillors have signed the SIPTU/TEEU Water Guarantee which commits politicians to a constitutional referendum to keep water services in public ownership.

TDs from the Labour Party, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, the Social Democrats, Anti-Austerity Alliance, People Before Profit aliance and Independents group have all publicly signed the Water Guarantee. More are expected to sign up in the coming days.

SIPTU Public Administration and Community Divisional Organiser, John King, said: “This campaign seeks to build cross party support for a referendum that will ensure that the State shall be solely responsible for the direct provision, including transmission, treatment, management and operation, of the public water supply.

“The Guarantee also commits signatories to working for the re-designation of Irish Water from a commercial semi-state to a non-commercial state agency. This will help ensure that water services continue to be provided for the public good and are maintained by directly employed public servants.”

The Water Guarantee was launched on Tuesday (19^th January) at a protest by local authority water workers outside Leinster House, Dublin.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Brendan O’Brien, said: “The Water Guarantee is part of a wider trade union campaign against the creeping privatisation of our water services. Water workers are committed to the provision of this public service and will do everything they can to protect it from the threat of privatisation.”

To view the names of the elected representatives who have signed the SIPTU/TEEU Water Guarantee click HERE

SEE LIBERTY VIEW

SIPTU representatives will attend talks with the management of Transdev, the operator of the LUAS light rail network operator, at the Workplace Relations Commission, on Friday, 22nd January.

The talks are aimed at finding a resolution to a dispute concerning workers’ terms and conditions of employment which has resulted in LUAS staff voting to conduct two 48-hour work stoppages during February.

SIPTU Utilities and Construction Division Organiser, Owen Reidy, said: “SIPTU representatives will enter these talks seeking a fair resolution to this dispute.  However, any resolution will necessitate movement by the company on the crucial issue of workers’ pay.

“The service our members provide has led to an increase in LUAS passenger numbers and passenger revenue in excess of 25% over the last five years. During that period, the workers have only received a 2.5% pay increase. These workers cover a transport system operated seven days a week, 364 days a year, and receive nothing in addition to their salaries for working unsocial hours or weekends.”

He added: “It is hoped that both sides will work hard to find a fair resolution to the dispute. However, without a significant change in the intransigent position displayed by management to date, the scheduled work stoppages will take place on Thursday, 11th and Friday, 12th and Thursday, 18th Friday and 19thFebruary. The workers are conscious of the inconvenience these stoppages will have on their customers but believe they have no option but to conduct this industrial action.”

SIPTU DART drivers are to ballot during February on industrial action, up to and including strike action, in a dispute arising from a management attempt to impose rosters for a ten-minute service without the agreement of staff.

SIPTU Organiser, Paul Cullen, said: “The company had stated that it was going to impose these rosters during January. It has now delayed their scheduled introduction and a ballot of workers on industrial action has similarly been postponed until February.

“Our members are deeply disappointed that the management of Irish Rail seems intent on provoking further conflict with workers. This is despite the Labour Court recently proposing a negotiation process which aims to create a forum were solutions can be found to productivity issues at the company.”

The new trade union initiative ONE Cork was launched by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Chris O’Leary, in Cork City Hall on Thursday (14th January).

ONE Cork is a joint initiative between the 20 trade unions working in Cork city and county, the Cork Council of Trade Unions and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions that seeks to foster greater co-ordination between the organisations. The aim is to more effectively organise workers, their families and communities to influence change.

ONE Cork co-ordinator and SIPTU Organiser, Sharon Cregan, said the intiative was the first of its kind in the country – a blueprint for similar initiative in other parts of the country.

She said: “ONE Cork involves a much deeper level of collaboration between the unions to organise, campaign, educate, train and communicate with workers, their families and the wider community.

ONE Cork will focus on a number of areas including:

• Organising workers into trade unions on a collaborative basis – particularly precarious and unemployed workers;
• Educating and training union activists and organisers to develop a critical understanding of social, economic and political issues;
• Communicating more effectively with workers – both directly as well as through local and social media – to inform them of their rights and issues that affect them;
• Campaigning on particular policy issues that will advance the interests of working people, their families and communities.

SIPTU representatives began two days of intensive talks with the management of the C&C Group in Borrisoleigh, County Tipperary, on Thursday (21st January). This follows the company’s announcement earlier this month that it intends to close its water bottling facility in the town.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, John Dunne, said: “When C&C Group announced its restructuring plans earlier this month the company stated that 80 positions would be created due to an expansion of its plant in Clonmel. Our members who face losing their jobs in Borrisoleigh must have the opportunity to transfer to these new positions under terms which show due regard for their many years of loyal service to the company.”

The closure of the Borrisoleigh plant and two C&C Group distribution depots in County Laois and County Wexford, which are scheduled to take place during the summer, are expected to result up to 144 jobs losses.

SIPTU members in St James’s Hospital, Dublin, have begun a ballot for industrial action in a dispute provoked by a management attempt to impose an annual charge of up to €500 for car parking.

SIPTU Organiser, David Field, said: “Hospital workers were shocked when this charge was announced to them in the run up to Christmas without any consultation or agreement.

“SIPTU members have attended union information meetings. At these meetings over 900 signatures have been collected for a petition opposing the imposition of the car park charge.”

Willie McGuinness, a SIPTU shop steward in St James’s Hospital, said: “SIPTU members across all departments in the hospital have shown full support for the campaign to oppose this charge. We are standing together to oppose this shocking attempt to unilaterally change our conditions of employment and are demanding that management shows workers the respect we deserve.”

The ballot on industrial action is scheduled to conclude in early February.

The Justice for the Clerys Workers campaign recorded two important victories during January with the announcement of a legal review aimed at preventing similar closures and the renewal of a Dublin City Council scheme which protects the use of the Clerys building.

SIPTU Services Division Organiser, Ethel Buckley, said: “The announcement by the Government of a review of company and employment law aimed at providing the basis for legislative change to prevent a repeat of the situation surrounding the closure of Clerys is a positive development.

“SIPTU expects that following this review the legislation will be amended to ensure employees can be better protected in such situations. That the current situation cannot be allowed to continue is evident from the overwhelming support provided to the Clerys workers in their campaign for justice.”

The review is expected to be completed by mid-March.

The decision of Dublin City Council to renew the Scheme of Special Planning Control for the O’Connell Street area was also welcomed by the workers and their supporters.

Former Clerys worker and SIPTU activist, Gerry Markey, said: “In particular, we support the Scheme’s stated objective of protecting building’s ‘uses that contribute significantly to the special character of the area’ and this will form a key consideration of any future planning applications involving Clerys.”

Talks should be convened between the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and groups representing all interested parties concerning the development of Moore Street, Dublin, according to the SIPTU Construction Sector. The aim of the talks would be to ensure that development of the Moore Street site adequately respects the role the area played in the 1916 Rising.

“The commemoration of the centenary of the Rising is not in the sole ownership of the Government or the State, rather it must be inclusive and for all citizens”, said SIPTU Construction Sector President, Eddie Gunnery.

“We believe an agreed way forward can be found in relation to the Moore Street site as long as the Minister consults with the relevant representative associations and groups who wish to honour those who fought in 1916.”

The call followed controversy over building works being carried out on the Moore Street site, which was the location of the last meeting of the rebel leaders prior to their surrender and the end of the 1916 Rising.

Protesters occupied the site in early January. They left after works were halted on foot of a High Court order until a judicial review requested by a group representing families of those involved in the 1916 Rising is completed. A High Court hearing has been set for 2^nd February and the protesters said they would vacate the properties until they hear the outcome of the proceedings.

Several buildings on Moore Street and Moore Lane are national monuments which must be preserved. However, several groups have expressed concerns about a proposed development of the area which will see several other buildings demolished.

SIPTU Health and Safety Advisor, Sylvester Cronin, has expressed dismay that the overall number of work-related fatalities remained at the same high level in 2015 as the previous year with incidents in the construction industry showing a significant increase.

Figures released by the Health and Safety Authority in early January show that 55 people were killed in work-related accidents in 2015. This is exactly the same number of fatalities that occurred in 2014. Fatalities in agriculture were down by 40%, with 18 deaths reported compared to 30 in 2014. However, construction fatalities increased from eight in 2014 to 11 in 2015 and the fishing sector also saw an increase from one in 2014 to five in 2015.

Cronin, said: “Between 2009 and 2014 there has been an almost steady increase in the annual rate of work-related fatalities. It is very disappointing that 2015 did not see a decline in these numbers.

“It is very worrying is that two-thirds of the overall work-related workplace fatalities happened in small employments. This is a segment of employments where the European Commission wants to make occupational safety and health legislation lighter.

He added: “This reduction in safety and health legislation in small enterprises will result in increasing risks to workers in these workplaces.”

A workers’ charter entitled ‘Standing Up For Working People’ was launched by the Labour Party on 12th January.

Among a number of measures aimed at improving working conditions and job security the charter commits the Labour Party to increasing the minimum wage to €11.30 over the lifetime of next Government. The charter also commits the party to ensuring that the State and all State agencies become Living Wage employers by 2018, as well as the creation of a new auto enrolment pensions system to ensure proper pension provision for every worker.

Launching the document, Labour Party leader, Joan Burton, said: “Alongside tackling low pay and promoting a Living Wage, we must address the root causes of insecurity at work, which cause too many workers anxiety about how to pay their bills and look after their families. To that end, if re-elected to Government, Labour will end exploitative employment contracts and bogus self-employment.”

To read the full‘Standing Up For Working People’ document click HERE

Trade union members face a challenge when we want to buy a phone or a laptop: the long and obscure supply chains mean we cannot be sure that the materials and components are produced to ethical standards. PSEU member Cathal Kelly reports on the efforts of a Dutch social enterprise to bring an ethical smartphone to the market.

On Christmas Eve 2013, Fairphone delivered its first phones to customers. The original plan in 2010 had been different: to start an awareness-raising campaign on the use of two conflict minerals – coltan and tin – in consumer electronics and their role in funding warlords in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But researching the supply chain led Fairphone’s founder and CEO, Bas van Abel, to conclude the only way to uncover the story behind the production chains was for Fairphone itself to make a phone.

“Our goal was to understand the system and see if things could be done differently if you produced a phone putting social values at the base of your mission”, says van Abel.

With its shift from a campaiging organisation to a manufacturer, Fairphone added other social concerns to its ambition. The company’s social aims now include the rights of workers in the Chinese factory where Fairphones are made, along with the environmental impact of the device, including safe recycling, and the longevity of the product, in particular making it repairable.

Making a device that is designed to last goes against the grain of the mainstream of the consumer electronics industry, where many companies plan for their products to go out of date after a few years. A longer-lasting phone was important for Ciarán Swan, a SIPTU member in the Houses of the Oireachtas, who paid out over €500 in the summer 2015 for a Fairphone 2 that was not due to be delivered until December.

Click here to read the full article.

Tom Healy, Director NERI

2016 will be dominated, among other things, by the British question.  The word ‘Brexit’ has been added to the English language.  As everyone knows by now it would mean the UK (and that includes Northern Ireland) leaving the European Union following a referendum later this year.  Historically, the island of Britain has always displayed a singular approach in international affairs possibly well captured in the sentiment prevalent during the English reformation: “The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England." (no. 37 of the 39 Articles of Religion).  History also arranged that Britain’s neighbouring island to the west has had a complicated relationship with Britain as well as, in the distant past, Britain’s enemies and allies on the European mainland.

That the world has changed dramatically in the course of the last 40 years is evidenced by the fact that:

• A key argument in favour of the Republic of Ireland joining the European Economic Community in the 1972 referendum was that ‘we have no choice if Britain goes in’. In other words, given the very high levels of imports and exports with the UK the option of negotiating some alternative trade agreement with the EEC was seen a non-runner.
• Northern Ireland narrowly voted, in a low turnout, in favour of the UK leaving the EEC in the UK referendum of 1975 (it should be noted that the UK did not agree to letting Northern Ireland disaffiliate from the EEC!).
• The ‘EEC’ has gone from 12 members in 1973 to 29 of which almost one half were under some dictatorship including Portugal, Spain and Greece which were under fascist dictatorship in 1972.
• Living standards in both parts of Ireland have risen dramatically in the course of 4 decades and along with this access to education and life expectancy (only a minority completed secondary education in the Republic as recently as the late 1960s). Travel to the ‘continent’ (especially by airplane) was an exotic luxury for the better off in the 1960s.
• The ‘common market’, as the EEC was sometimes called, has evolved from a free trade area to a much closer political, economic and monetary union.

The European Campaign for Fair Transport was launched in Ireland on Monday (18th January) by SIPTU Transport and Aviation Sector activists. The campaign includes a European Citizens’ Initiative petition which calls upon the European Commission to guarantee equal treatment for transport and aviation workers across the EU.

SIPTU Utilities and Construction Division Organiser, Owen Reidy, said: “SIPTU as Ireland’s leading transport union is pledging its support to a Citizens Initiative being organised by our European allies in the European Transport Federation (ETF).

“More and more legislation affecting transport workers is generated from Ireland’s membership of the EU. It is critical that workers take the opportunity to not only campaign for decent legislation in Ireland but also at EU level.

To view the European Campaign for Fair Transport petition click here.

The SIPTU/TEEU Water Guarantee campaign offers every TD and councillor in the country the opportunity to show their support for maintaining our water services in public ownership.

Local authority workers, who have delivered our water services for decades, have come up with two simple solutions to what they know to be the serious threat of the creeping privatisation of this essential utility.

Firstly, the national utility which oversees the development of our water services on a 26 county basis, Irish Water, must be re-designated from a commercial semi-state to a non-commercial state agency. This will remove the ability of private capital to seep into our water system and slowly twist it from being focused on public service to profit generation.

Secondly, a referendum which will constitutionally copper-fasten our water services in public ownership. Only such a public vote can ensure that future governments cannot be persuaded to succumb to the demands of the massive multi-national companies that are seeking to privatise water services across the globe.

It is the duty of all SIPTU members to work with the Water Guarantee campaign to persuade elected representatives to protect the existence of a public water service for future generations. This campaign is not about how such a service should be financed but is focused on the even more fundamental issue of what our water system should be; a source of private profits or an essential service for our society.

By Ger Gibbons

Almost 110,000 men and women were registered as long-term unemployed (i.e. unemployed for at least a year) in the third quarter of 2015. While this is down from the early 2012 peak of over 200,000, it is still almost three times pre-crisis levels of 40,000. Moreover, the ongoing fall in long-term unemployment is forecast to slow over the coming years.  NERI and others have highlighted the need for new labour market policies to tackle this challenge. 

The question arises, are there lessons we can learn from other European countries that do have a better record in keeping long-term unemployment at low levels?

Last September, the European Commission issued a proposal, a (non-binding) recommendation, dealing with one aspect of this challenge – how employment services interact with the long-term unemployed. Based on its assessment of best practice and the experience with the Youth Guarantee recommendation, agreed in 2013, the Commission suggested a three-staged approach: first, registration of each long-term unemployed person with a ‘single point of contact’; second, an individual assessment with each person; and third, a personalised ‘job integration’ agreement with each person.

There are positive aspects to the proposal. It states, for example, that the job integration agreements should spell out service providers’ obligations to the long-term unemployed, adding that these could cover job search assistance, work experience, education and training, the validation of non-formal and informal learning, guidance and counselling, and social support services such as early childhood education and care, health and long-term care services, debt counselling, housing and transport support. This could promote the better co-ordination of services aimed at helping the long-term unemployed (and others), something that traditionally hasn’t been done well in Ireland.

But there are weaknesses and concerns. For example, the individual assessment and job integration agreement would take place “within” 18 months of becoming unemployed, which is too long. Furthermore, the proposal refers to an obligation on the long-term unemployed to accept offers of “suitable” work.

In early December, EU ministers reached provisional agreement on the proposal. They improved some parts. They inserted for example a reference to facilitating integration “into sustainable, quality employment”, which wasn’t explicitly stated in the Commission’s draft. But other concerns remain to be addressed.

Work is now continuing on this initiative and it is unlikely that it will be definitely adopted for a number of months. This period should be used to agree a measure that makes a genuine contribution towards tackling long-term unemployment and to promoting decent - not precarious - jobs.

By Ger Gibbons

On the 15th January, the European Commission issued a roadmap on this year’s planned ‘evaluation and fitness check’ of 1991 EU legislation on an employer’s obligation to inform employees of the conditions applicable to the contract or employment relationship (the ‘written statement’ directive).

This legislation commits member states to enact measures requiring employers to provide employees with a written document containing information on the essential elements of their contract or employment relationship, within two months of starting employment. It is intended to ensure that employees know who they work for and the basic conditions of their job, including details of “the length of the employee’s normal working day or week”.

The legislation is implemented in Ireland through the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts, 1994 and 2001. A 1999 Commission report pointed out that in implementing the legislation (to that time), Ireland had availed of a possible derogation to exempt employees working less than eight hours a week.

The roadmap points out that this legislation has never been “thoroughly evaluated”, and states that the Commission will now assess the “compliance, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence of the legislation and address its “EU added value”. The evaluation will involve an assessment of implementation in all member states by national legal experts, a “specific focus” on eight member states (Ireland isn’t one of them), interviews with EU-level stakeholders, including the social partners, workshops with experts and stakeholders, and a  three month public consultation, to be launched by the end of January. The Commission intends to outline its findings and intentions in October.