Actions will begin again, asserts local authority union

FORSA has announced the recommencement of industrial action in local authorities, citing the failure of the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) to engage meaningfully with the union on the establishment of a job evaluation scheme for workers in the sector.

Talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) between the union and the employer broke down last week, in what was the second conciliation meeting on the issue.

Earlier this month local authority workers suspended planned industrial action to allow for talks, after assurances that the employer was committed to meaningful and constructive engagement on the issue.

Fórsa’s Head of Local Government and Local Services Richy Carrothers said that local authority management took the most surprising and strident position to date.

“Both sides had committed to engaging meaningfully and constructively to resolve this dispute, but management has betrayed the good faith of the process. The LGMA had committed to the joint union and management referral to the WRC, but this has now been breached. The actions of the LGMA has undermined the process and we have lost all trust that management want to, or will meaningfully negotiate a resolution to this dispute,” he said.

Richy said that the union has been left with no option but to reactivate the industrial action campaign for job evaluation in the local authority sector.

The union represents more than 10,000 local government and services workers including clerical, administrative, management, technical and professional staff.

Fórsa maintains that local authority workers continue to take responsibility for additional duties and responsibilities assigned to them during the economic crisis, when 10,000 jobs were lost from the sector.

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