Staff at local authorities to stop engaging with politicians’ representations from Monday

Local authority workers across the country are to refuse to engage with routine representations from politicians on behalf of their constituents from Monday morning as they undertake industrial action aimed at securing a system of job evaluations.

About 12,000 members of Fórsa, across 31 local authorities, are involved in the wider dispute which is rooted in a claim that many roles have evolved since the financial crash more than a decade ago when some 10,000 jobs were lost in local government.

The dispute has been ongoing for many months, with the union accusing the Local Government Management Association (LGMA) of failing to engage properly. The association has argued the issues involved need to be addressed as part of the wider national public sector pay talks which are expected to start in the coming weeks.

The dispute was the subject of hearings at the Workplace Relations Commission earlier this year but the process broke down without agreement and both sides accused the other of having failed to engage properly with the process.

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“On the one hand, the LGMA says there’s nothing to see here, everybody’s treated properly, and then in the same breath, they say, actually, we believe this is going [to] cost a lot of money because people will be regraded,” says Fórsa’s head of local government Richy Carrothers.

“But it’s either one or the other. Either people are being treated properly, in which case there should be no problem with an assessment that will show that’s the case, or people are being treated incorrectly, in which case we need a process to deal with pay inequality and the fact that people are working at a higher level than they are being paid for.”

Mr Carrothers said the members directly involved in the first phase of the industrial action on Monday will decline to deal with “non-statutory political representations”, something councillors, in particular, say will impact on their work.

“My understanding of it is that they will no longer be dealing with our phone calls, emails, WhatsApps regarding situations where people are put [out] of their homes or where there is illegal dumping, and I could have dozens of communications like that with council employees over the course of a single day,” Dublin-based Sinn Féin councillor Daithí Doolan told The Irish Times.

Mr Doolan said he “applauded” the work the council employees do, saying many are hugely committed and while he supports their case for the evaluation, he said the action would cause significant problems.

“It will mean that councillors like myself will have to bring these cases to officials higher up the chain, cases like families needing emergency accommodation, people dumping rubbish or a car having been burned out. Those things will have to go to senior management who will be overburdened.”

Pat Fitzpatrick, a Fianna Fáil councillor in Kilkenny and current president of the representative body, the Association of Irish Local Government, said the action would “have serious repercussions for the work of our elected members, particularly on behalf of their communities and constituents.

“While recognising the right of local authority staff members to further their employment rights, it is disappointing that the work of councillors making representations on behalf of the public are being targeted.”

He said the organisation was making representations to both Fórsa, asking it to avoid disruption to the work of elected representatives, and to the LGMA, urging it to re-engage in the talks process.

TDs will also be impacted by the action, although Labour’s Aodhán Ó Ríordán said he did not expect them to be impacted to the same extent as councillors.

He said he supported the council staff’s right to take the action in support of the system of evaluation and urged the LGMA to “go and settle the dispute”.

The LGMA said it “has consistently advised Fórsa that this issue is broader than the local authority sector and should be dealt with at central level on a public sector-wide basis.

“Following the WRC engagement, it was open to Fórsa to refer the matter to the Labour Court, instead they have chosen to commence industrial action, contrary to the provisions of the public sector pay agreement, Building Momentum.

“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.”