Fórsa trade union members working for the city and county councils will be engaging in industrial action over a job evaluation dispute.
From September 11 onwards Fórsa members will commence an indefinite ban on all non-statutory engagements with politicians such as TDs and Councillors. Public services will not be affected.
The industrial dispute centres on job evaluation, working out the relative worth (grade for the job) of posts in the local government sector.
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.
Fórsa claims that there has been an “abject failure” of management in the sector to engage with them on the dispute, not accepting that people are doing work above their current pay grade.
Both the Local Government Management Agency and Fórsa have requested that the WRC urgently reconvene conciliation on the issue of job evaluation in the local government sector.
From September 11 onwards council workers will not engage in any verbal, email or written engagements with politicians on matters such as answering queries, helping with parliamentary questions, etc which are not part of their statutory requirements.
This extends to all elected representatives including Councillors, Senators, TDs, including Ministers, and MEPs.
Fórsa has stated that industrial action will continue to escalate if employers fail to engage meaningfully with the union on this dispute.
