Local authority workers to refuse dealing with official emails, phone calls as dispute escalates

Local authority employees involved in a dispute over the nature and value of their work are to escalate their action next week as a result of what they say has been a failure by management to engage with the issue.

Fórsa, the trade union representing some 12,000 staff at 31 local authorities, said on Thursday that its members will embark on a series of time-limited actions around refusing to deal with official emails or phone calls from next Friday.

On that day, the staff will decline to respond to any official email communications while the following Tuesday and Wednesday, they will refuse to engage with telephone calls on work phones, video calls or social media.

Since Monday of this week, staff have been refusing to deal with politicians making representations on behalf of constituents. Councillors said the move has implications for their ability to have issues like emergency housing requests or illegal dumping dealt with.

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The staff are seeking a system of job evaluations, arguing such a system is required to assess how jobs in the local authorities have changed since more than 10,000 workers were lost around the time of the financial crash and given the way the roles of current employees have evolved since.

The dispute, which has been ongoing since last year, was previously referred to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), but the union accuses the Local Government Management Association (LGMA) of failing to properly engage in the talks there.

“Management representatives utterly failed to engage meaningfully in resolving this dispute, despite its commitment to do so,” said Fórsa’s Richy Carrothers on Thursday.

“There was no meaningful or constructive engagement from the employer side at conciliation hearings in July. Consequently, negotiations broke down. The LGMA has failed the process, and local authority workers, and has betrayed the good faith of the joint referral to the WRC.”

The LGMA, which was approached for comment on Thursday, has previously said it is willing to attend the Labour Court in relation to the issue and criticised the union for proceeding instead to industrial action.

“Should Fórsa wish to follow the established processes within the State’s industrial relations procedure, the LGMA, on behalf of local authority management, will engage with same,” it said last week.

It has also argued the issue needs to be addressed in the context of the national public sector talks, which are due to start during the coming weeks.

Responding on Thursday, Mr Carrothers said the LGMA’s approach to the WRC talks had been such that the union saw little point in proceeding to the Labour Court.

“We remain available to attend the State machinery and our preference is to reach a negotiated settlement, but it requires that employers match that solution-focused determination,” he said.