New Public Service Agreement

The Public Service Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said in its submission to the expert group this summer that it believed the €150 million provided by the government under the agreement reached earlier this year should be enough to return overtime to workers “without negative impact on costs or the provision of services”. Like the current Public Service Stability Agreement (PSA), the proposed new agreement includes a provision to review the terms of the agreement “where the assumptions underlying the agreement need to be revised.” However, union negotiators successfully insisted that the wording of the ASSP, which specifically linked this to a deterioration in the economic situation, be removed. This creates an opportunity to call for a revision of the package if the economic situation improves beyond expectations. Given that the agreement has already received support from other major civil service representative organisations such as Siptu, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the INTO Primary School Teachers` Union, it has more than enough support to ensure ratification when the full Public Service Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions meets on Tuesday. to discuss the subject. This is an essential protection, as abolishing the labour cost regime would effectively mean that the majority of business cases would support outsourcing and lead to the privatisation of public services – on the basis of the minimum wage and low-level labour protection rights – regardless of the impact on the quality of service and the protection of workers. This section of the proposed agreement concerns certain measures introduced under the 2013 Haddington Road Agreement (HRA) and still in force. The measures to be taken under this agreement are overtime hours introduced under the HRA, as well as the payment of overtime and bonuses. In a policy change earlier this year, the government agreed, under a new utility agreement, to reduce overtime on Haddington Road that was previously considered permanent. The proposed agreement identifies a number of issues that the independent body must consider, including the cost and service implications of managing HRA hours. These are set out in section four of the proposed agreement.

A fund of €150 million will be set up to cover all operating costs arising from the recommendations on the future of these hours during the term of the agreement. Overtime has become a major point of contention for a number of key public sector unions in recent years. The decision to reduce Haddington Road`s hours of operation was a turnkey demand from unions during talks that led to the new Public Service Salary Agreement Building Momentum reached last December. The unions denied the cost estimates provided by government officials. A submission to an independent body set up by the government to investigate the matter said there were about 185,000 public sector employees working about 15 million hours of overtime introduced under the 2013 Haddington Road agreement. Section 3.1.4 of Building Momentum states that public servants who receive an amount for the reinstatement of salaries in 2021 or 2022 under sections 19 and 20 of the Public Service Compensation and Pensions Act, 2017 will not receive the general increase that year. However, if the amount of recovery due is less than the general increase in the round, they will receive the balance on the day of the increase in the general round. Fórsa said 96 percent of the 39,457 members who participated in the vote supported the proposed new deal. The proposed agreement recognises that ISSUES RELATING TO THE RHS “need to be addressed and implemented”. If the issues identified for a category, group or class cannot be fully resolved within the 1% allocation, the Parties shall agree on the elements that can be implemented under this Agreement. The outstanding items “will be dealt with in a future sectoral negotiation fund under the next agreement”. Fórsa has already submitted a request to the Workplace Relations Commission (CMR) to abolish the 72 hours.

And while the proposed agreement does not abolish hours, it commits the Ministry of Education to a serious review of the use of hours, which will open up a broader discussion about the role of ANS. The cost of eliminating overtime and unpaid work hours introduced as part of austerity measures taken nearly a decade ago for public sector staff will amount to €645 million per year, the Ministry of Public Expenditure has predicted. The allocation of tools for craftsmen will be reduced to the 2012 level when the proposed agreement is ratified. Implementation of these recommendations will start during the term of the agreement, with €150 million available to start implementing the results (which “must be applied equitably to all relevant grades, groups, categories and sectors”) in the course of 2022. Fórsa, the largest public sector union, announced on Monday that its members overwhelmingly supported the proposed deal in a vote. If ratified, the agreement would provide for the creation of a “sectoral bargaining fund”, which would initially amount to 1% of the basic pensionable salary for the duration of the agreement. It is not possible to increase the allocation by proposing productivity measures. Nor can the process “lead to unintended results of increased costs.” The benefits of the Agreement are limited to workers represented by trade unions belonging to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions or other representative trade unions or associations which have notified the CMR of their intention to comply with the Agreement. .