Over 170 community employment (CE) supervisors from across the country met in Portlaoise last week to advance the union’s campaign for pension justice. The meeting of IMPACT and Siptu members was called in advance of next month’s meeting of a high level Forum for the community and voluntary sector, and against the backdrop of IMPACT’s political lobbying campaign.

The meeting passed a resolution mandating the union to take further action if an outcome is not reached at that forum. Although CE supervisors provide a valuable public service, they are not treated as public servants for pension purposes, which leaves them with no occupational pension provision at all.

IMPACT has recently held meetings with senior representatives of political parties and groupings in the Dáil including Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour and the Independent Alliance. There have also been meetings with advisers to the independent ministers in government.

Further meetings with party spokespeople and ministers are lined up, and the issue is on the work programme of the Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection.

Back in 2008, the Labour Court recommended that a pension arrangement be put in place for CE supervisors, and funds were allocated by FÁS. However, the economic crisis and abolition of FÁS led to delay.

IMPACT raised the issue in pay talks in 2015 and 2017, and secured the establishment of a high level forum to deal with the issue under the Lansdowne Road Agreement. More recently, the union won a commitment to complete a scoping exercise by the end of this month.

Read our statement of case HERE.

An IMPACT survey for CE supervisors closes tomorrow (Thursday 19th October).

 

IMPACT has said that calls by childcare providers, to reduce qualification standards for employees, were not the answer to the current challenge of recruiting and retaining staff in early education.

IMPACT organiser Lisa Connell said, “This is essentially a call to drive down wages, and force qualified professionals out of the sector. Parents wouldn’t tolerate a situation where qualification standards were reduced for teachers in our schools, why would they tolerate it for their pre-school children?

“I think this is short term thinking, and will only serve to diminish the educational standards in the crucial pre-school years, where children are learning how to learn,” she said.

Meetings

IMPACT is hosting a series of meetings across the country for workers in the early childhood and education sector. Each meeting will include a guest TD from the local constituency.

The meetings have been organised by the union’s Early Impact branch, which represents early education professionals, including childcare staff and workers delivering the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme.

Lisa said the meeting provided an ideal opportunity for a constructive engagement between workers and Dáil representatives. “We’re delighted that a number of TDs have agreed to take part in this discussion. The early education sector is facing a very real crisis due to the ongoing lack of investment in the sector, and this is an opportunity for policy makers to dig deeper on the issue by talking to the professionals who deliver the services,” she said.

Lisa said that, while the recent budget saw some improvement in state funding, which should be of benefit to parents and families, there is still a very severe lack of investment which Lisa said “translates into very low levels of pay for highly qualified early education professionals.”

The meetings include a question and answer session. Lisa said all early childhood staff are welcome to attend, even if they aren’t members of IMPACT. “We want to hear from as many people as possible, as this is a conversation that could spark really positive change in this crucial sector,” she said.

 

IMPACT and other unions in the water sector are to engage with Government and political parties on the future of water services, amid fears that proposed new governance structures could threaten employment and increase the risk of privatisation over the coming years. The decision, by the ICTU group of unions, came after Irish Water confirmed that it wanted to create a single water agency – and employer – once current ‘service level agreements’ with local authorities expire.

Although Irish Water’s parent company Ervia has informed the minister of its position, the Government has not yet taken a position on the proposal, which would effectively bring local authority water staff under the wing of a unitary state agency.

In a letter to IMPACT members issued this week, the union’s national secretary Peter Nolan said: “all the unions are clear that there is no appetite among local authority workers for a change to their current employment relationship. This position will be emphatically presented to all the political parties inside and outside of government.”

Irish Water has said it will continue to honour existing service level agreements. But it wants to enter discussions with unions on the matter.

The wider group of unions – which includes Siptu, the TEEU, Unite and Lapo – also endorsed IMPACT’s view that the proposal would create more anxiety over future public control of water and sewage services. Last month the union issued a statement calling on the Government to name a date for a referendum on public control of water.
 
“The proposal of a unitary model is bound to feed the suspicion that both the Government and Ervia want to keep the option of future privatisation alive, despite political commitments that they will remain in public ownership. This underpins the need for a referendum, which would support the quality and affordability of water services into the future.” said Peter.

Analysis

The Department of Justice and Equality’s public consultation process on measures to address the gender pay gap closed for submissions earlier this month. IMPACT has made two contributions. Throughout their submissions, trade unions were united in their calls for gender pay gap reporting legislation.

Prior to this consultation process employer group Ibec appeared to be against gender pay gap reporting. They had said that gender pay gap reporting “was not a useful mechanism” for closing the gender pay gap. Ibec is now calling for reporting to be introduced.

IMPACT wrote to Ibec to point out that gender pay gap reporting presents businesses with several real opportunities. In its letter, IMPACT argued that the measure “would open up a new front on which employers could compete to attract and retain the best female talent.” And that “publicly available gender pay gap information would also allow firms to make informed choices about who to engage as suppliers or contractors from a gender equality perspective.”

The correspondence concluded by expressing a hope that “Ibec might reconsider its opposition to the principle underpinning the Bill” ahead of the consultation.

Fair dues

Credit where credit is due: Ibec did reconsider its position. In its submission, they called for the introduction of gender pay gap reporting based on the Australian model. Ibec said that “once an appropriate method of reporting is developed it will offer a diagnostic approach to highlighting what the particular issues are for organisations and industry sectors alike.”

It is great to see Ibec lend its support to the principle of gender pay gap reporting. We continue to believe that we must design our regulations according to the UK model. It’s important, though, to engage substantively and we are willing to compromise in areas.

Ibec has called for reporting to be introduced for employers with 250 workers in the first year, before being phased down to smaller organisations. IMPACT will support this call. We believe that organisations with 250 or more employees should report starting in the first year, organisations with over 100 employees should report beginning in the second year and organisations with 50 or more employees should report beginning in the third year.

Ibec also opposes the imposition of a class ‘A’ fine on organisations that fail to report. There is room here too for compromise. IMPACT believes that the Bill must contain an enforcement mechanism. It does not, however, need to consist of a class ‘A’ fine. This measure is not intended to be punitive.

Ibec suggests that implementing measures based on the UK model “could have reputational issues” for a firm. It is true that this measure relies on reputational incentives to work. To this end, in our submission to the Department, we suggested using data from reporting to generate a nationally recognised badge of merit for gender equality.

This could be modelled on Ibec’s new KeepWell mark that makes awards for ‘commitment’, ‘achievement’ and ‘excellence’ in health and safety practice. This would help to mitigate some of the concerns that Ibec has around reputational damage and would serve to enhance the reputational incentive created by the Bill.

There are issues, though, with Ibec’s submission. For example, in the submission Ibec provides a definition of the pay gap. Ibec states that:
“It compares the pay received by all working women and by all working men; not only the pay of women and men in same or similar jobs”.

Later, in the same submission Ibec criticises the UK model of gender pay gap reporting because the “calculations are for all working men and all working women in an organisation including the CEO not just those men and women in the same or similar jobs”.

Ibec says, meanwhile, that “the Australian model considers the like-for-like remuneration of standardised occupational categories.”

According to Ibec’s own definition of the gender pay gap, then, the Australian model does not measure the gap and the UK model does.

Union submissions

The Gender Pay Gap Information Bill 2017 is referenced throughout the union submissions. From this, it’s clear that the Labour movement is calling specifically for the UK model of gender pay gap reporting to be introduced.

• Read IMPACT’s main submission here. In our main submission, IMPACT said it believes that “the introduction of Gender Pay Gap Reporting would represent significant progress towards closing the Gender Pay Gap” 
• Read SIPTU’s submission here, in it they call on Government “to legislate so that companies with a staff of 50 or more must make periodic reports of the median and mean wages of female and male employees in their staff”
• Read the Financial Services Union submission here. In it, they say that “one of the most important steps that needs to be taken is to require firms with more than 50 employees to conduct and report on gender pay surveys at regular intervals”
• The Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ submission also called for gender pay gap reporting. Read it here.

 

 

IMPACT has welcomed the Budget 2018 announcement that 500 additional civilian staff will be recruited to An Garda Síochána in 2018.

IMPACT national secretary Andy Pike said the additional staff, while falling short of the call by the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) for 1,000 additional civilian staff last year , was a step toward improving the capacity for policing throughout the country.

“IMPACT supported the CPSU's position on this issue. We didn’t expect to see the target reached overnight, but this announcement is a step in the direction of achieving the Policing Authority’s target of having civilian garda staff comprise 20% of the Garda workforce by 2021.

“The real value of this approach is that it frees up gardaí to engage directly in policing duties, which is a far better use of garda resources, and of much greater benefit to communities throughout the country,” he said.

The recruitment target was announced last week as part of Budget 2018 by Minister for Finance & Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD. The recruitment is part of a €63 million budgetary programme to enable the Department of Justice to develop the police force, including the recruitment of 800 additional gardaí.

IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly is encouraging members working in the health sector to get the flu vaccine this winter.

Eamonn is one of the participants in the HSE’s #YourBestShot video campaign, which is encouraging healthcare workers and others to prevent the spread of flu – and save lives – by getting the flu vaccine.

Eamonn said, “The best way to protect you, your family and the patients you meet every day is to get this year’s vaccine. You can pass the flu virus to somebody you care for even before you know that you are sick.”

Eamonn emphasised the need for healthcare workers to look after their health. “Healthcare workers are at an increased risk of exposure and infection. At least 20% of healthcare workers are infected with flu every year and many continue to work while being ill. This increases the risk both to colleagues and patients,” he said.

More details here.

See also: hse.ie/flu.

 

See our short video explainer on the issue here.

IMPACT's 8,000 special needs assistants (SNAs) members have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action over recurring delays, by the Department of Education and Skills, to publish SNA allocations before the end of the academic year.

In a nationwide ballot of four SNA branches, 97% backed industrial action, up to and including strike action if necessary.

IMPACT assistant general secretary Barry Cunningham said the ballot result demonstrated the depth of feeling among SNAs over the issue. "The delays have meant that SNAs don’t know if they have a job to return to the following school year, but are unable to apply for redeployment in the event that they don’t.

"This year marked the fourth successive year of delay, as the allocations weren't published until July. We have tried to raise this as an issue with the department year after year. Our members reached the conclusion that the department simply isn't listening, and their frustration is expressed in the huge support for this ballot," he said.

The ballot of SNAs is for industrial action, up to and including strike action, to achieve:

• A guarantee that, in future, SNA allocations will be announced in sufficient time (no later than May) to allow the Supplementary Assignment Panel – and distribution of available hours to serving staff – operate to full effect
• Arrangements in respect of job security on a par with teachers and other public servants
• An agreed procedure for dealing with SNA grievances and issues (including proposals to resolve or refer to an agreed process all outstanding cases).
• Barry said the union's Education executive will meet shortly to consider the next steps. He said the union will seek to open a discussion with the department to resolve the issues, but that the determination of IMPACT's SNA membership wasn't to be underestimated. "We expect a positive result from the department. They cannot ignore the concerns of SNAs any longer. That has been clearly expressed in this ballot result," he said.

Budget boost

IMPACT has welcomed the additional 1,000 extra SNA posts announced this week as part of Budget 2018.

Barry said the expansion of SNA services is both timely and necessary. “The increase is a welcome sign that the importance of investment, into special education services, is being recognised by the Government. However, the increase in SNA numbers is another factor that demands a more timely publication of the school term SNA allocations,” he said.

The Department of Education & Skills has confirmed to IMPACT that the total number of additional posts is 1,091. Of these, 130 posts will be available between January and June 2018, with the balance of posts from September 2018.

“This will make a difference to children with special education needs and their families all over the country. Demand continues to grow for this vital education service, so the additional investment is welcome,” he said.

News coverage:  Special Needs Assistants vote in favour of industrial action (RTE, includes report from RTE's SixOne news Saturday 14th October 2017)
 

 

IMPACT has amplified its longstanding demand that civil servants get the same right to appeal to the State’s industrial relations machinery as other workers. The demand came after the Cabinet accepted an interdepartmental report recommendation that Garda associations should have access to the Labour Court and Workplace Relations Commission.

The union says the move will leave Ireland’s 30,000 civil servants virtually alone in being denied access to mainstream industrial relations conciliation and arbitration expertise.

The Cabinet moved immediately to accept the recommendation of the report, from the departments of justice and enterprise, which was put in train on foot of last year’s dispute over Garda pay and representation. Published last month, it recommended against establishing Garda associations as trade unions, but said they should have access to the WRC and the Labour Court once issues have been through a new dispute resolution process.

IMPACT national secretary Andy Pike said civil servants’ patience was wearing thin. “This is about fair access to dispute resolution services for all workers in our economy. We welcome the fact that Gardaí will have access to the court and WRC, but this latest twist means their civilian counterparts in the police service will still be denied that right, along with 30,000 others,” he said.

IMPACT has campaigned on the issue for many years. Its efforts led to a provision in the 2015 Workplace Relations Act, which allows the minister to give civil servants access to the Court and WRC. But the provision has not been implemented despite repeated pressure from IMPACT and other civil service unions, who also support the provision of full access to the WRC.

 

IMPACT’s Central Executive Committee has sought legal opinion on the convoluted employment arrangements in place for many Ryanair pilots. The union has accused company management of using arms-length ‘zero hours’ contracts to undermine employees’ rights and avoid independent trade union representation.

The move comes amid a crisis at the airline, which has left tens of thousands of customers in the lurch because it can’t retain enough pilots to meet its flight schedules.

One Ryanair pilot took the brave step of sending an open letter to the airline’s chief executive, despite the company’s record of intimidation and harassment of staff and union reps. Captain Imelda Comer said she had “not seen anything like the level of pilot anger, frustration and disappointment arising from the way the company management has treated us in the recent past.”

Captain Comer said management's recent actions had resulted in “an unprecedented level of unity throughout the pilot body, and a spontaneous desire to become an organised group and to respond to the company with a unified voice.”

Meanwhile, the European Cockpit Association (ECA), which speaks for pilot bodies across the continent, has sent an open letter to members of the European Parliament. It called for “genuine social dialogue” in the company, which denies its staff independent union representation and instead has company-run procedures in place. 

Like IMPACT, the EPA also wants the implementation of a recent European Court of Justice judgement, which states that air crew members, in disputes relating to their employment contracts, have the option of bringing proceedings before the courts of the place where they perform the essential part of their duties.

Captain Comer placed the blame for the company’s latest difficulties firmly on its executives. “Management got us into this mess. They cannot solve these problems without us. To move our own representation in a new direction, we have to stop the company’s usual rush to divide and conquer. Only the pilots acting together can do that. An airline is not an airline without its pilots,” she wrote.

Related:

• Captain Imelda Comer letter to Colleagues 
• Captain Comer's letter to Ryanair management (11th October 2017)

IMPACT has officially launched its new group scheme for members. Since April this year IMPACT members have saved over €25,000 when using the union’s new group scheme. Last month alone (September) members saved €8,000 in discounts.

As an IMPACT member, once you register, you receive discounts from hundreds of brands and retailers, saving you a lot of money. The group scheme website is provided to you as a member benefit.

The scheme gives you the opportunity to save money with hundreds of well-known brands and companies, including asos.com, Debenhams, Argos and the Abbey Theatre.

Discounts are available online and in-store in a wide range of categories, including travel, consumer tech, motoring, entertainment, eating out, fashion, health and grocery shopping.

This scheme has been negotiated in conjunction with JLT Insurance Brokers Ireland, an insurance company IMPACT has dealt with for over 25 years.

To avail of the scheme, simply register at the site. There are a number of ways you will save. You will receive a weekly email with the latest offers, with savings of up to 80%. Alternatively you can sign up for specific offers, such as a Topaz fuel discount card, or receive up to 40% off Odeon cinema tickets.

There is also a group cashback scheme. The concept is simple. Each time you shop online with one of our cashback partners, they’ll give you back a portion of the money you spend. The money accumulates in your Group Scheme cashback account, which you can transfer to your own bank account at any time. For instance, JLT are offering €25 cash back on your group scheme account for new home insurance policies taken out between October and November.

Shopping and gift cards

Savings on top brands and retailers are available using the discount shopping cards. Purchase your discounted shopping card for these retailers in advance, such as Arnotts, Boots, and B&Q, to use online or in-store, and top-up any time.

The Exclusive Hotel Discounts search engine allows you to find hundreds of amazing rates on hotel and leisure breaks, from a selection of thousands of the best hotels, located throughout Ireland.

Matt Staunton, IMPACT’s general manager, has welcomed the scheme. “The new group scheme is in addition to the many benefits IMPACT members already enjoy. As we are currently an organisation of over 57,000 members, we are in a position to negotiate such deals. I would encourage all members to sign up for this scheme. Why not save some money when you can,” said Matt.

Competition

If you register before Friday 1st December 2017 you will be entered into a draw to win an iPhone 6 (courtesy of website partners eir); one of five €50 Topaz Fuel Cards (courtesy of website partners Topaz); one Nokia health activity tracker (courtesy of website partners Nokia).

Anyone who has registered for the scheme will automatically be entered in the competition

Find out more and register at the group scheme website.