The Local Authorities Sector has identified Workforce Planning as a priority issue, as frontline services are reorganised due to the transition of water services staff to Uisce Éireann and resourcing issues.
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Brendan O’Brien, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated to the public how important Local Authority services are and why we need to ensure they are properly supported and resourced. Departments which must be resourced properly across all local authorities, but in many cases are not, include Housing, Roads and Parks. These services were adversely affected during the years of the Public Sector recruitment moratorium and have not fully recovered their required workforce numbers.
“We also need to future-proof the Local Authority workforce to meet the challenges of climate change. The pressure on Local Authority services due to extreme weather events is increasing. Our members are the ones who both prepare the defences and deliver the response to these events. Local Authorities must factor this into their future workforce planning.
“Local Authorities must also play a central role in the retrofitting of homes and cleaner energy use. In order to meet these challenges, Local Authorities must plan for the re-training and up-skilling of workers, along with the recruitment of apprentices.”
He added: “The re-municipalisation of public services is a growing trend across Europe as the failure of the privatisation of essential services such as water and domestic waste collection becomes ever more evident. In Ireland the privatisation of our domestic waste services now means over 20% of people don’t have a waste collection service and illegal dumping has grown exponentially at huge cost to the State. The time is right to actively campaign to bring services such as domestic waste collection back under the control and operation of the Local Authorities and to plan accordingly.”
In order to meet these challenges, SIPTU officials, shop stewards and members must work together to put workforce plans in place that ensure the workers delivering essential public services do so on good terms and conditions of employment.