Laois councillors back workers who won't engage with politicians
County councillors in Laois have backed staff who are set to begin industrial action in County Hall Portlaoise which will staff ceasing to communicate with public representatives on issues raised by voters.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Independent unanimously councillors backed an emergency motion put down at a council meeting in the face of some resistance.
Cllr Paddy Bracken tabled the motion at the Borris-in-Ossory Mountmellick Municipal District meeting on Thursday, September 7 just days before industrial action was due to commence.
After it was discussed by councillors Mr Donal Brennan, Director of Services, said the dispute is an executive matter.
"This is a matter for the Chief Executive and would not fall within the remit of the elected councillors. It is difficult to bring this as an emergency motion," he said.
This was rejected by the Fianna Fáil councillor.
"I am not accepting that. I put down the motion to support the staff in this dispute...we have a right as elected representatives," he said.
He said that from September 11, staff who are members of Forsá will not deal with councillors.
"Rightly so that is the path they are taking to resolve the dispute. I am not going to be told that brining an issue before the local authority is beyond us," he said.
He concluded: "This area fully supports the staff involved in this dispute. We are all agreed on that".
Cllr James Kelly, Independent, asked for a list of the sections to be affected by the action.
However, Mr Brennan said this would not be possible as the council could not say who is a member of a union or not because that would be restricted under GDPR. He said it would be up to the trade union to tell councillors which section would be impacted.
Cllr John King, Fine Gael, said the union would not inform councillors which sections could not be contacted.
"It was not fair that councillors are left in the dark," he said.
However, Mr Brennan insisted he could not share such information by law.
The Fórsa trade union had previously written to councillors, TDs and senators in Laois and other counties about the action to be taken.
It says notice of the industrial action was served to local authority employers on Friday, September 1. The union has said this is due to the failure of local authority management to engage meaningfully with the union on the establishment of a job evaluation scheme for workers in the sector.
Forsá says job evaluation assesses if a job’s grade is properly matched to its duties and responsibilities.
The industrial action will commence next Monday, September 11 with an indefinite ban on non-statutory political representations from TDs, senators and councillors from that date. This means that local government workers will not respond to routine queries and requests for information from politicians. Fórsa said it will announce further action - up to and including strike action - in due course.
The union said the industrial action had been forced by the LGMA’s (Local Government Management Agency) “strident” position in resisting the union’s claim for a job evaluation scheme.
Fórsa represents more than 12,000 local government and services workers including clerical, administrative, management, technical and professional staff.