Members of Fórsa trade union at Monaghan County Council have sent a Valentine's Day message to local authority management calling for an independent job evaluation scheme. They are asking the Local Government Management Agency , which is the State agency with oversight for local authorities nationwide - to "Love Local Government".
Speaking to Northern Sound, Niall Shanahan, Communications Officer with Fórsa, said workers at the local authority want a fair and independent assessment of the work they are doing. He highlighted how its members working in the HSE, Tusla and the higher education sector have all secured job evaluation, and the process is now common place across much of Europe.
Mr Shanahan added that Forsa represents more than 30,000 local authority staff across the country and services were only maintained in Monaghan because staff took on additional responsibilities above their pay grades after the financial crash in 2008.
"The reason they are doing this is because this goes back to the economic crisis from 2008 or 2009 onwards. Nationwide. we saw close to 10,000 jobs lost out of the local authority sector. As a result of that, the services provided by local authorities after that point, were really only maintained because the remaining staff took on additional responsibilities. And, many of those responsibilities were above their paygrade," he said.
