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Monthly Archives: April 2016
ADC 2016 LIVE BLOG Saturday 23rd April
12.50pm The ADC closed for this year. President Tony Conlon thanks delegates for all their hard work, and the work behind the scenes. All the best!
12.25pm ADC passed a motion instructing the Executive to review the working of Circular 05/2010 to include grandchildren as an “immediate relative”.
12.08pm ADC are discussing motions on Leave/Sick Leave.
12.03pm ADC has voted against the motion to support the campaign to repeal the 8th amendment.
11.55am ADC is discussing a motion to support the campaign to repeal the 8th amendment.
11.47am ADC has passed a motion calling on ICTU to begin a general and united campaign to reverse pay cuts and pay freezes, and for the Executive to instigate housing campaigns with other trade unions.
11.44am ADC has moved onto Miscellaneous motions. It has carried a motion on the crisis in the health service, accepting that the responsibility for defending our health service should be the responsibility of the whole trade union movement.
11.31am Waterford General branch have proposed an Emergency Motion regarding the design of Intreo reception areas: they want adequate security measures put in place to protect staff i.e. security glass, especially in light of continuing incidents against members.
11.30am The ADC passed the Emergency Motion to hold a special rules conference in advance of ADC 2017. 118 in favour, 44 against and 29 abstentions.
11.25am Tellers have been called to count the votes for and against the Emergency Motion.
11.20am The ADC is discussing an Emergency Motion to hold a special rules conference in advance of ADC 2017. General Secretary Eoin Ronayne said some rules were vague and the rules needed to be updated. Tony Gallagher, Donegal, opposed the motion.
Here is the result of the Executive elections.
11.10am Executive elections results announced. President Tony Conlon congratulates them.
10.45 Still on the Conditions motions, staff at the Dept of Social Protection seek to allow members the opportunity to operate on a work-share basis, with other members on a similar grade, as the DSP has refused to allow its staff to avail of all the shorter working hours available in other departments.
10.35am Delegates discussed whether they should have to give PPS numbers to PeoplePoint. Deputy General Secretary Derek Mullen said it was used as an identifier for staff, but others complained about regular data breaches. Derek Mullen said it was unlikely to be changed, but he understood the concerns people had especially as almost 1,900 members were involved in data breaches.
Incoming Vice President Terry Kelleher said “we are creating a working poor, with new workers and a younger generation are affected most”, referring to zero hours contracts and low pay.
10.06am Delegates are now discussing motions on Terms and Conditions. Motion 20, on the ICTU Charter for Fair Conditions at Work, is being discussed.
10.00am Theresa Dwyer told delegates about the Garda Equal Pay case, a lengthy story – full details are in her Equality Report. It’s back in the Labour Court next week. This case was first begun in 2000 – pay our members the rate of pay they should be getting, said Theresa. Gardai are doing clerical work in offices up and down the country the same as our members, and there is discrimination, she said, because CPSU members are paid a lot less than the Garda Siochana.
9.55am 100 years ago this weekend, the Rising began.
Women were part of the 1916 Rising, and they were written out of history, Theresa Dwyer said. She told ADC about the women of the Rising – women like Nurse Elizabeth O’Farrell, one of 3 women who remained at the GPO until the end of Easter Week. She delivered the message of surrender to the British Military, to General Lowe.
Helen Molony was a political activist, and James Connolly appointed her as Chairman of the Irish Women’s Workers Union; she was sent to prison for 7 months for her part in the Rising, and retained strong political links to the labour movement until her death.
Dr Kathleen Lynn was a doctor and activist, an active supporter during the 1913 Lockout, who later joined the Irish Citizen Army. She was a Chief Medical Officer in the Rising, was imprisoned after the Rising, and remained active in medicine in her life, and was buried with full military honours when she died in 1955.
They are just 3 women who were active in the Rising and very involved in the labour movement and women’s rights.
9.30am Equality Officer Theresa Dwyer tells the gathering that the provision of childcare is in crisis in Ireland. 10 years ago, Theresa said she produced a childcare report and the main questions haven’t changed: should childcare be subsidised and who should pay for it? Who should receive the subsidy – parent or childcare provider? What form should the subsidy take? It should target lower earners.
The rate of female participation in the workplace is at 40% for women with children, very low by OECD standards, and while there have been positive changes in the last 10 years, still a lot to do.
HERE’s the full report to read.
9.00am Morning all!
Just getting started into a busy morning on the final day of ADC 2016 in the INEC in Killarney. First up: the Equality Report from Assistant General Secretary Theresa Dwyer, and we’ll be announcing the results of the Executive elections.
Press Release ADC Tony Conlon President
CPSU President warns that outsourcing of work and the increased use of temporary workers must be challenged and calls on the new Government to repeal FEMPI and restore all pay and conditions
Civil & Public Services Union President Tony Conlon has called on any new Government to urgently repeal the FEMPI legislation on coming to office. Delivering his Presidential Address to the union’s Annual Delegate Conference in Killarney, he said lower-paid clerical workers had had enough and wanted the promises made by politicians in the run-up to the election delivered on.
Mr Conlon praised the work and commitment shown by CPSU members over seven years as they strived to maintain and improve services to the public at the same time as their wages and conditions were being cut by their employer.
Noting that the conference was being held on the actual centenary of the 1916 Revolution, he said it was not unreasonable to recognise that public servants had in their own way carried out their patriotic duty to the State.
He said the time had now come for the repeal of FEMPI by delivering on the full restoration of pay and conditions.
Mr Conlon said economic growth figures of 7% – 8% were underpinning a better performance fiscally. He noted that many in the private and semi-state sectors had not incurred cuts and were now experiencing pay increases of between 2% and 3%. He pointed out that it was not unreasonable in that scenario for lower paid clerical administration workers to recover what had been taken from them, adding “at this point we are talking restoration of cuts not fresh claims for new pay increases.”
PRESS RELEASE ADC 2016 Friday 22nd April
CPSU attacks new entry points that mean Clerical Officers wait six years to reach €11.50 an hour.
General Secretary says new recruits now are up to €7,000 a year behind lowest paid colleagues and warns that members want faster pay and conditions restoration
Speaking today at the Annual Delegate Conference of the largest civil service union, CPSU General Secretary Eoin Ronayne told delegates the low entry points imposed by the Government on the lower-paid Clerical Officer Grade means it will take new recruits six years to reach €11.50 an hour.
He said the starting rate of €9.70 an hour was totally unacceptable and that unlike others these workers did not get any allowances or premium top-ups.
Mr Ronayne blamed the austerity programme and the six year moratorium on recruitment and claimed that there was growing evidence that new recruits were leaving as they could not cope – especially in Dublin.
He continued: “Many of these new state employees are third level qualified and when they realise it will take over 18 years to get to the mid-€30,000s they head off to better opportunities.”
Mr Ronayne told conference that new recruits find themselves working alongside the last members of staff to be employed in the same grade before the moratorium only to discover that their annual pay is approximately €7,000 more.
“This is not only unfair but crazy in terms of building morale and motivating new recruits in a service where the average age of the Clerical Officer is now 47.”
Despite the fact that the Lansdowne Road Agreement had favoured lower-paid workers, Mr Ronayne said member expectations were “at an all-time high given the strength of economic performance and the promises made by all hues of politicians in the election” and he warned that any new government must “speed up full pay and conditions restoration”.
In particular he attacked the continuance of the additional two plus unpaid hours a week which had been imposed on civil servants, noting that they had not been imposed on others in the public service in the same way.
Mr Ronayne said the issue of pay and conditions restoration in the public service was not going to go away and that whenever a new government is formed it would be a critical issue for it to face up to.
Referring to the fact that the conference was taking place on the weekend of the centenary of the Easter Revolution in 1916, Ronayne pointed out that many politicians who had been to the fore in celebrating the leaders of the Rising and the words of the Proclamation had failed to meet the challenges it posed for our democracy.
He cited inaction on homelessness, the health service, workers’ and migrants’ rights and warned history would judge this generation by its desire and efforts to build a more equal Republic.