On the issue of the Government’s approach to unions which have rejected the current proposals, O’Connor said: “I think an effort should be made to extend a hand to the people who are outside and see if anything can be done to address their most serious concerns. It is not up to me to tell the Government what to do but I think that they should do it.”

O’Connor was clear that while a single agreement was preferable the current proposals as they stand may not provide the basis for such a deal.

However, he said that he did not believe “that the negotiators left anything at the table” and any improvement on the proposals would only be secured through industrial action.

“The issue is whether another strategy would produce a better single, centralised public service agreement or not.”

O’Connor added that any Government attempt to implement a pay cut across the board for all public servants would be "monumentally stupid" but he warned that it was likely to attempt a divide and rule strategy against the trade union movement if the proposals are rejected.

The SIPTU National Executive Council will meet on Thursday (14th March) to decide on its position on the proposals before a full ballot of members in the public service.

To listen to the full interview Click Here

Read the full text of the Labour Relations Commission Proposals for new Public Service Agreement

SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor, has expressed his deep regret at the tragic death of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez.

“I want to express my deep regret at the death of Hugo Chavez whose passing is a tragedy for the Venezuelan people and the oppressed and downtrodden of Latin America and the wider world.”

“His vision of an egalitarian society for which he strove so earnestly offered a humane and radical alternative to the collapsing edifice of the neo-liberal project which has wreaked such havoc across the globe.

“His death from cancer at such a young age is a sad loss for all progressive people and movements that aspire to fairness and justice in society.”

Dublin youth worker, Aishling Golden, said; “Youth services provide a vital safety net for vulnerable young people in many communities. These cuts will lead to a reduction in the numbers of professional staff in the service, which will result in some projects closing and a reduction in the effectiveness of others.”

Already a number of actions have taken place to highlight the cuts and force the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, to delay their implementation. On Friday (1st March) over 200 workers protested at the CDYSB offices on Morehampton Road, Dublin 4, and a motion of support was passed unanimously at Dublin City Council on Monday, (4th March).

At a general meeting on Thursday (7th March), SIPTU members in the Dublin Youth Services agreed to form a campaign committee to continue the fight.

SIPTU Community workers have launched a new campaign to defend vital services from government plans to cut, outsource and close key parts of the sector.

SIPTU Sector Organiser Darragh O’Connor explained: “Plans announced by the Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan will dismantle existing structures for key community services. 'Our Communities First' campaign has been established in response to these proposals to defend thousands of workers who now face an uncertain future.”

The local Government Reform document, Putting People First, proposes an ‘alignment’ between Local Authorities and Local Development Companies that will have major implications for local services and workers. According to O’Connor, the Minister’s plans put the future of over 50 Local Development Companies in jeopardy and also put millions of euros of European funding at risk.

Key threats to the sector from the Minister’s proposals include:

• The likely closure through “amalgamation” of local development companies
• Job losses
• The contracting out of services
• The loss of funding streams from the EU
• A ‘race to the bottom’ in wages and conditions.

Detailing the main components of the new campaign Darragh O’Connor said: “Initial plans include intensive lobbying of politicians across the 26 counties. We will making clear to politicians the damage these plans will inflict on already disadvantaged communities who are suffering the worst effects of the recession. We will also engage with local communities to explain the impact of the Minister’s plans on vital programmes providing community development, education and employment supports.”

SIPTU Shop Steward, Manus Bree, said: “On Tuesday (26th February) Minister Hogan indicated in the Dáil his intention to ‘rationalise structures’ as part of this so called ‘alignment’ process. We know that this means job losses and reduced services for local communities. If his department is intent on making such big decisions about our jobs and our local services he needs to talk to the people at the coal face”.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Eddie Mullins, said: “The bottom up approach of independent Local Development Companies has been internationally recognised as a best practice model. The independent nature of these companies is also a stipulation for the continued receipt of millions of euros in European Rural Development funding.  Any change must consider the interests of communities and workers.  That’s why SIPTU is launching a campaign to defend these vital local services and jobs”.

Several hundred people attended a rally at the Central Bank, Dublin, on Monday (4th March) calling on the Government to legislate for the X case before the summer.

SIPTU was among 100 civil society organisations, trade unions, politicians and academics that supported the evening demonstration.

“Our union campaigns for fairness at work and justice in society. We view the issue of reproductive rights and women’s access to quality healthcare services as fundamental human rights,” said SIPTU Campaigns and Equality Organiser, Ethel Buckley.

“The reality in this country is that there is no impediment to men seeking and obtaining any required medical intervention to protect their health, quality of life or life. At present the same can not be said of women in this State,” she added.

Among the other organisations supporting the Rally for X were the ICTU Women’s Committee, National Women’s Council of Ireland and AkiDwa (national network of migrant women living in Ireland).

SIPTU school bus drivers in the Galway area have reached agreement with Bus Éireann, bringing an end to a dispute which had threatened to result in strike action.

SIPTU Transport Sector Organiser, Willie Noone, said: “Following meetings between union representatives and management, agreement was reached concerning issues relating to hours of work and pay.”

“These issues have now been resolved to the complete satisfaction of the members involved.” 

The drivers had voted to take industrial action, if necessary, in a ballot held in January.

By Siobhán Barron

For over 35 years it has been Government policy that at least 3% of those employed in the public service should be people with disabilities. The Disability Act 2005 put this employment target on a statutory basis.

The 3% target is a positive action measure to ensure that people with disabilities can get jobs, or stay in their jobs, in the public sector. This is against a backdrop where, even during the economic boom, people with disabilities were twice as likely to be out of work as the general population.

Under the Disability Act public sector bodies are legally obliged to

• promote and support the employment of people with disabilities
• employ 3% of staff with disabilities, unless there are good reasons why not

The National Disability Authority has the role to report every year on how the public sector is doing on this front. In its latest report (for 2011) issued at the end of last year, it reported that for the first time ever this 3% target had been achieved.

This marks an important milestone. This achievement is all the more welcome against the backdrop of a public service which is downsizing and where most public bodies face an embargo on recruitment.

The total number of staff working in the public service has been decreasing since 2007 with a fall of more than 33,000 since its peak. However, there has been an increase in the reported number of people with disabilities working in the public service from 5,879 in 2007 to 6,171 in 2011. The 2011 figure represented a reported increase of 423 employees with disabilities as compared with 2010.

How has the 3% target been achieved?

This is the culmination of efforts by the public service to recruit, support and retain staff with disabilities. The Disability Liaison Officers (in the civil service), Access Officers and Equality Officers play an important role in supporting staff with disabilities, and ensuring they are accommodated to do their jobs. 

There may belittle that can be achieved, in most public sector organisations, to provide new openings for people with disabilities until the situation changes and the embargo is lifted; but other options can and are being tried, like work placements, including the Willing Able and Mentoring scheme run for graduates with disabilities by AHEAD.

Supporting staff who acquire a disability to stay in work, and creating a disability-friendly working environment are very important, particularly during the embargo when other options are limited. These actions create benefits for staff and customers of public bodies, as they deal with an increasingly diverse and ageing population.

Siobhán Barron is Director of the National Disability Authority

Click here to view or download the full Report

There is no doubt that the proposals for a revised agreement for workers in the public service represent a huge challenge for SIPTU members and the wider trade union movement.

Faced with a Troika insistence on securing a further €1billion reduction in public spending over the next three years, intense negotiations between unions and public service management have resulted in the latest set of proposals from the Labour Relations Commission.

Each union member will have an opportunity to vote on the proposals based on how they affect their pay and conditions of employment.

It is our view that workers in the public service are better served by one centralised agreement with the Government and by arrangements which protect them against redundancy and the outsourcing of their jobs.

That is one of the main reasons that SIPTU recommended the original Croke Park Agreement in 2010 when it was the subject of intense criticism across the public service unions.

On this occasion, it is evident that the SIPTU and other negotiators left nothing at the table and any improvement on the proposals can only be secured through industrial action where the outcome is, to say the least, uncertain and where neither side, worker or employer, can hope to win outright victory.

The issue is whether another strategy would produce a better single, centralised public service agreement or not. That is for members to decide in the coming weeks.

While nominal labour unit costs in Germany rose by 5.9 %, and 8.1 % in the UK during the last three years, Irish labour unit costs fell by 12.2 % during the same period due to the imposition of wage cuts (especially in the public sector) and a significant increase of the productivity of Irish employees. Compared to the Irish, across the entire EU only Latvian workers faced a bigger labour unit cost losses (-15 %) according to official EU statistics (European Commission 2012: 24).      

The Irish government implemented all austerity cutback demands set by the EU/ECB/IMF Troika without hesitation. In turn, Commission President Barroso (2013) celebrated Ireland at a recent conference of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) because the Irish case apparently “shows that the [Troika] programmes can work.” In recognition of these efforts – we were told by the Government a few weeks ago – the EU and the ECB accepted a restructuring of the Anglo Irish Bank debt which reduced Ireland’s short term liabilities by one billion euro.

So where is the sudden demand for an additional one billion euro cut of Irish public sector pay bill coming from? Why is the Government determined to break the Croke Park I agreement that was supposed to run until June 2014 and to take an additional billion out of the economy? The answer to this question is surprisingly simple. The Government and Troika underestimated the negative impact that austerity cutbacks have on the growth rate of the economy:

According to Olivier Blanchard, the fund’s [IMF’s] top economist, the impact of fiscal consolidation is “large, negative, and significant”. The size of this effect is bigger than the fund previously thought. “Fiscal multipliers”—the change in GDP growth that results from a change in the government’s structural budget deficit—were thought until recently to be 0.5. New IMF research now suggests a multiplier effect of 0.9-1.7 is more likely. So deficit reduction of one percentage point could knock up to 1.7 percentage points off growth (The Economist 2012).

Roland Erne is a SIPTU staff representative and Lecturer in International and Comparative Employment Relations at University College Dublin

Click here to view or download the full article

Preparatory Meetings

The invitaton can be downloaded here

The registration form can be downloaded here

These events are free of charge but prior registration is necessary. Please return registration form to EAPN Ireland, Equity House, 16 Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin 7 or email it to enquiries@eapn.ie using SIF 2013 in the subject line

This year we commemorate one of the longest and most wide spread industrial actions in the history of our island. At ten o’clock on the morning of August 26th 1913 the tram men who were members of the ITGWU walked off their trams and so began the infamous 1913 lockout.

One of the first groups to come out in support of the tram workers were the women who worked for Jacobs led by a young Rosie Hackett. This was not her first involvement in industrial action. In 1910, Rosie was one of several hundred women from the factory who went on strike and secured equal pay for women.

Each and every one of the many thousands of trade unionists who suffered great hardship during the lock out understood that in order to make progress what was required was solidarity and co-operation.  Today, we face different challenges. However, I believe that Labour Women and SIPTU can also co-operate in order to achieve what I believe to be important goals that are based on our shared values.

Labour Women supports the SIPTU Equality Committee “Making Caring Count” campaign which seeks pension justice for women who have taken time out of the work for caring responsibilities. In 2012, changes in the state contributory pension resulted in a significant decrease for those who have an average of 48 or fewer yearly PRSI contributions. Women forced out of work due to the marriage bar have also been affected by this change. It is of vital importance that we identify a means to ensure pension justice for women and we look forward to working closely with the equality committee on this issue.

Public sector employers in areas such as health and education are by far the biggest employers of women. Inequitable cuts to public spending will affect women acutely leading to job losses, reduced income and diminished pension entitlements.  Labour Women hopes to engage with public sector unions to develop alternatives and further the equality agenda for women.

Statistically, women are more adversely affected in economic downturns than men. Addressing this in our pre-budget submission, Labour Women have offered alternative cost-saving avenues to the Government, which have gender neutral effects.

Both SIPTU and Labour women are supporters of the Turn off the Red Light Campaign. In 2010 the Labour Party conference voted to support the Turn of the Red Light campaign. Today, thanks to the joint campaigning efforts of SIPTU, Labour women and the many other partners in the TORL campaign the government are undertaking a review of Irelands laws on human trafficking.

Labour Women and the trade union movement have a shared history and shared aims. With solidarity and co-operation with each other we have a much greater chance of achieving our goals.

Energy Action’s European Conference on Tackling Fuel Poverty will be held in the Ballsbridge Hotel, Dublin, on March 11th and 12th.

EU Energy Action conference will pool information and experience to reduce Fuel Poverty in the coming year.

The conference has the theme of ‘Reframing Fuel Poverty in Europe’. It will focus primarily on addressing the health impact of the problem on low income groups and older people.

It is estimated that 65 million Europeans currently live in fuel poverty and that it is associated with over 30,000 excess winter deaths each year on these islands alone, including over 1,200 in the Republic.

Charles Roarty, General Manager, Energy Action says that, “Initiatives adopted as a result of our conferences have helped contain the fuel poverty crisis over the years. Energy companies have become more fully engaged with customers, as evidenced by the dramatic fall in consumer disconnections and the use of meter programmes to help people manage their energy bills. By sharing information, research and the lessons learnt from dealing with the fuel poverty crisis in different situations companies, government agencies, communities and voluntary agencies are finding more effective ways of eliminating this enormous social problem that affects every EU member state.”

We are delighted to announce that Kerry Foods
have joined the Supporting Quality Campaign