Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 27 Nov 2001

Vol. 545 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Industrial Dispute.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin:

I welcome the opportunity to raise this very important issue. While I am grateful to the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children for coming into the House to respond on behalf of the Minister – positively, I hope – given the seriousness of the matter, I am disappointed that the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs is not responding.

As we approach the Christmas season, thousands of people throughout the State are experiencing major inconvenience and, in many cases, real financial hardship due to the ongoing dispute at the office of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs in Letterkenny, County Donegal. Since this dispute escalated at the beginning of October, telephone and fax calls to the child benefit and treatment benefit sections at Letterkenny are not being answered. The long delay in processing child benefit is a very serious matter for people with children. A huge backlog has now built up and, even if the dispute is settled soon, it is difficult to see this backlog being cleared quickly and people receiving their due payments before Christmas. I seek assurance from the Minister on this matter and urge that every effort be made to ensure people are not deprived at this time.

Treatment benefits cover financial assistance for dental and optical treatment and medical appliances. People are out of pocket and are being deprived of their just entitlements. The staff at Letterkenny, represented by the Civil and Public Services Union, have genuine grievances which must be resolved. These chiefly concern the levels of staffing and grading at the office in the context of a new computerised system. The union commenced its action at the beginning of October, a satisfactory agreement with management not having been reached. The initial action continued for four weeks and when no progress was made, it was escalated.

I understand from the CPSU that initially the Department was not offering any promotions to staff officer grade and has now offered four. This would still leave the ratio of staff officers to clerical officers in Letterkenny far below the ratio in the Department generally which is one to five. The union believes that these promotions are necessary in the context of the introduction of the new computerised system.

It is clear that the Department's failure to establish a partnership committee at Letterkenny is central to the industrial relations problems there. There is a clear obligation on management, under successive partnership agreements, to establish such a committee. It is unacceptable that such a dispute should have been allowed to develop and fester in such a key Department. The widespread effects of the dispute have been highlighted by the Dóchas for Women organisation in my home county of Monaghan. The organisation works with women on a daily basis, a number of whom have been deprived of payments due to them. Some mothers of babies born up to four months ago still have not received payments.

I call on the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs to ensure that the staffing and grading issues at the heart of the dispute are resolved immediately and that the necessary partnership committee is established at the Letterkenny office. The Minister has a special responsibility, I contend, to ensure families are not left seriously out of pocket in the approach to Christmas. Go raibh maith agat.

Ms Hanafin:

Ba mhaith liom an freagra a thabhairt ar son an Aire ach ós rud é go bhfuil sé cuíosach fada, léifidh mé go tapaidh é.

The CPSU, which represents the grades of clerical officer and staff officer, has been taking industrial action in the Letterkenny decentralised office of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs since Tuesday, 2 October. This office administers the child benefit and treatment benefit schemes.

The industrial action started with a total ban on working overtime and on dealing with telephone and fax inquiries. Since Tuesday, 30 October, the action has been extended to include the withdrawal of co-operation with the implementation of a new computer system for the delivery of child benefit, together with a ban on a range of administrative tasks such as photocopying and the making of work returns. While the industrial action is preventing the Department's customers from contacting the Letterkenny office by telephone or fax, claims continue to be received in the post and these are being processed. The position in relation to the clearance of claims is, on the whole, satisfactory with no more on hand than is normal for this time of year.

The Minister would make the point, however, that a seasonal peak occurs at this time every year in relation to children over 16 years of age returning to school after the summer. Some delay is normal in relation to child benefit claims in this category but in these cases also, good progress is being made on clearing the claim loads. The level of arrears currently on hand in respect of both child and treatment benefit claims is broadly in line with the position that pertains in normal circumstances at this time of the year. The Minister regrets the inconvenience to the public arising as a result of the industrial action and would like me to emphasise that every effort is being made to resolve the dispute within the context of existing industrial relations agreements.

As part of the programme of modernisation of the systems for delivering social welfare services, the Department is currently engaged in the development and implementation of a new computer system for the child benefit scheme, known as the service delivery model. In the context of this project, it emerged in August last that there was a temporary need for eight staff at clerical officer level for a period of six months. The recruitment of temporary staff is provided for under the restructuring agreement for grades represented by the CPSU, negotiated centrally under the PCW. This agreement also commits the union to a range of flexibilities and co-operation with organisational change, new schemes and initiatives and technology.

The recruitment of temporary staff was first broached by local management of the Department with the Letterkenny branch of the CPSU and then, at the request of CPSU head office, consultations took place between the head office and the Department's personnel area. In line with normal practice, these central consultations covered the reasons temporary staff were needed, their numbers, the likely duration of employment and the proposed approach for sourcing staff for the eight temporary posts. The union was also advised that the Department, being sensitive to the infrequent opportunities for transfers to Letterkenny under the central transfer system, intended to fill five of the eight temporary posts by permanent assignments from the central transfer list. This was done on the basis that these posts would be absorbed, over time, into the normal staffing figure for the Letterkenny office. Following on these consultations, the recruitment of the three temporary staff was agreed by CPSU headquarters.

The union subsequently maintained that adequate consultation had not taken place in relation to the recruitment of the three temporary staff. It then indicated that the remedy being sought was the assignment of a further three permanent clerical officers to Letterkenny. This was not accepted by the Department as there was no business need for the assignment of additional staff. The Department is quite satisfied that it fully complied with the provisions of the restructuring agreement as set out in general council report No. 1323 relating to the recruitment of temporary staff.

This agreement specifically allows for the employment of temporary staff on contracts not exceeding 12 months, even where there is a dispute between a Department and the union as to whether temporary staff are warranted. In circumstances where such a dispute arises, the agreement provides for the issue to be referred to a monitoring group with the assistance of a facilitator, if necessary. The Department proposed to the CPSU on several occasions that this mechanism be used to resolve the dispute. However, the union's position, as communicated to the Department, is that this would be time wasting and diversionary.

Despite the fact that the industrial action was balloted on in relation to the issue of consultation in respect of the employment of three temporary staff, it has since been represented by the CPSU that the action is in response to a failure by the Department adequately to consult on the implementation of the new computer system for child benefit. Having taken this position the union then stated that its co-operation with the implementation of the new computer system is conditional on a substantial package of promotions and additional staffing for the decentralised office of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs in Letterkenny. It also made known that as the new system was developed over time to cater for other schemes administered in the Department's decentralised offices in Sligo and Longford and in headquarters offices in Dublin, its co-operation was similarly dependent on further substantial packages of promotions for its members in each of these locations.

In response to these demands the Department proposed that the union avail of a mechanism in the restructuring agreement which provides that where the union considers there are significant implications for the career opportunities for its membes, the Departmenrt would discuss the matter with it, with the involvement of a facilitator at the request of either side.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle:

The Minister of State's five minutes have concluded. However, if the House is agreeable, she may continue. It is most unreasonable for Ministers to prepare speeches of nine or ten pages for a five minute slot. It is also very unfair to the staff of the House to prolong the House at this hour of the night, any longer than is required by Standing Orders.

Ms Hanafin:

I agree with you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I will raise the matter with the Minister's Department.

The facilitator would assist in assessing the concerns of the union and, in the light of that assessment, arrive at means by which any valid concerns should be addressed. However, the union has refused to go this route and, instead, is insisting that an offer of a substantial package of promotions and additional staffing in the Letterkenny office must be made by the Department to bring about a cessation of the industrial action. In taking this approach the union is effectively divesting itself of all obligations to deliver on the flexibilities and co-operation with change for which its members have already been paid. At the same time it is also disregarding the available dispute resolution mechanisms which it negotiated with the Department of Finance.

The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs cannot meet demands such as those now being made by the CPSU. To do so would have the effect of negating agreements already in place, thereby introducing a system whereby changes designed to deliver improved services to our customers would have to be negotiated and paid for on an item by item basis. It would be impossible for the Department, which has over 2,600 staff in grades represented by the CPSU, in about 200 offices across the country, to manage improved service delivery and indusrial relations on such an uncertain and confrontational basis. Inevitably, such a scenario could lead to disputes throughout the organisation as it became clear to CPSU members that additional benefits could be obtained under threat of industrial action. This could well have similar implications for improvements in service delivery throughout the Civil Service.

In the context of the dispute, reference has been made to the fact that a local partnership committee has yet to be established in the Department's decentralised office in Letterkenny. The delay in establishment of the committee has arisen because the CPSU has attempted to exercise a veto on the involvement in the committee of staff in grades represented by the union who are not members of the CPSU. The Department maintains that this position is not in keeping with the agreement governing the establishment of partnership committees. Nonetheless, it has indicated that, in line with the phased establishment of other partnership committees, a committee consisting of management and unions could be established in the first instance. The issue of a union veto is a matter to be addressed in the Civil Service-wide review of the partnership process.

The Minister has asked me to say that every effort is being made by the Department to bring about a resolution of the dispute. Whatever resolution emerges, however, cannot be based on unilateral demands by the CPSU for a package of promotions. Any such package must be based on the business needs of the Department or, alternatively, arrived at following discussions with the union on the implications of the new child benefit computer system for the career opportunities of its members in Letterkenny.

In this context, the most recent meeting between officials of the Department and the union took place last week on 20 November. There have been ongoing contacts with the union since with a view to putting together a draft agreement aimed at bringing about a resolution of the dispute. Further contacts are expected to take place in the coming days, which, I hope, will result in the cessation of the industrial action.

The Dáil adjourned at 10.35 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 28 November 2001.