Proposed FÓRSA Industrial Action

It is with significant disappointment that South Dublin County Council have been notified of extensive industrial action by FÓRSA which is due to commence on Monday 24th March which will immediately and very negatively impact on our delivery of public services and key programmes of work, directly affecting the people of South Dublin County and our elected members who represent them.

For reasons that are unclear, FÓRSA has foreclosed on both established industrial relations structures and a negotiation process that had commenced to instead proceed to “initial” industrial action, the extent of which is unprecedented and completely disproportionate to the issue in dispute.  We remain willing to actively engage before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on the matter in dispute but given the actions of FÓRSA who urged members to engage in unofficial industrial action during a ballot process, we may be left with no choice but to take actions necessary to protect services to the public and to meet our obligations to local councillors and other key stakeholders.

This dispute relates to the continued outsourcing of very specific legal elements of debt collection work that would otherwise require the recruitment of additional solicitors in the council’s Law Department, which amongst other aspects would be extremely challenging in the current recruitment environment. 

This work, which has already been successfully carried out in the manner proposed for a number of years, involves the legal pursuit of commercial rates debtors up to and including court appearance and lodging of judgements.  Engaging a third-party firm to carry out this work has not removed work from any existing staff cohort and is being carried in this way based on the single objective of maximising our budgetary capacity through appropriate debt collection.  Not doing so may also give our debtors an incorrect perception about the need to pay significant debts owing to the council and it is particularly disappointing that FÓRSA do not appear to accept the importance of protecting and maintaining our revenue stream.

FÓRSA have misleadingly alleged that the council have refused to engage on this issue and that there will be job losses if this work proceeds as planned.  Both statements are categorically false.

South Dublin County Council can absolutely confirm that there will be no reduction in related staff numbers due to the proposed change in debt collection. Under our Corporate Plan 2025-2029, the council’s new workforce development plan (recently provided to FÓRSA and other trade unions for consultation) outlines the need for the largest increase in jobs our organisation has ever seen, along with identifying new areas of skills development and other supports to ensure we continue to have a committed, engaged, and innovative workforce.

In addition, our recent efforts to engage with FÓRSA on this issue are as follows:

• September 2024: Attendance at WRC conciliation with FÓRSA where it was agreed to engage further on the matter locally.
• 10th October 2024: Proposal sent to FÓRSA setting out rationale, costs and benefits of maintaining external provision of the legal services.  Feedback requested from FÓRSA in advance of six-week consultation process (in accordance with the Public Services Agreement and as agreed at the WRC conciliation).
• 25th October 2024: FÓRSA notified the council that they rejected the proposal and were proceeding to ballot members to undertake industrial action.
• 1st/ 14th/29th November 2024: South Dublin County Council wrote to FÓRSA on three separate occasions advising that we were available and willing to meet and inviting engagement on the proposal.
• 13th December 2024: Notification issued to FÓRSA that the prescribed consultation period had expired and, in the absence of any meaningful engagement during the prescribed consultation period, the proposal would proceed.

Unofficial industrial action was subsequently taken by FÓRSA on 10th February 2025 along with a formal ballot for industrial action after which, notice subsequently issued that extensive industrial action would commence on 24th March 2025. The proposed industrial action will breach the current Public Service Agreement.

South Dublin County Council respect and value the importance of trade unions in protecting workers' rights and there have been many positive outcomes for both staff and the council through our constructive engagement over the years.   This makes the current proposed action most regrettable as ultimately the dispute will only be resolved through industrial relations structures. We will make every effort to ensure that those mechanisms are utilised as soon as possible, and we are committed to engaging with the WRC but any such engagement cannot proceed while industrial action is underway.

South Dublin County Council will provide updates on details of any contingency measures which the council will have to put in place to ensure that we can continue to deliver services to the people of the county and to support the functioning of local democracy.