Public service pay deal: Building Momentum - Feb 2022 pay rise

Geuze

I have a query about a possible PS pay rise in Feb 2022.

The Building Momentum Agreement is an extension of previous public service agreements, including the Public

Service Stability Agreement, 2018-2020. This Chapter sets out the agreed approach to public

service pay for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022.

https://assets.gov.ie/101537/d2abf15f-d504-4c8b-92a9-aa47ef1bd9ce.pdf

3.1.3 The following pay adjustments will apply over the period of this Agreement:

 A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of 1% or €500,

whichever is greater, on 1 October 2021.

 The equivalent of a 1% increase in annualised basic salaries to be used as a Sectoral Bargaining

Fund, in accordance with Chapter 2 of this Agreement, on 1 February 2022.

 A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of 1% or €500,

whichever is greater, on 1 October 2022.

I haven't heard anything about the possible Feb 2022 increase, which is explained below. I haven't heard of any PS sector receiving this award?

What is the ‘sectoral bargaining fund’?

If ratified, the agreement would see the establishment of a ‘sectoral bargaining fund,’ initially worth 1% of basic pensionable pay during the lifetime of the agreement. It’s not possible to increase the allocation by proposing productivity measures. Neither can the process “give rise to unintended cost increasing outcomes.”

This can be used to deal with outstanding adjudications, recommendations, awards and claims that are relevant to specific grades, groups or categories of workers within the various sectors of the public service.

Alternatively, groups could opt to use the available allocation, or part of it, as a sectoral pay round.

The bargaining units (ie, the different grades, groups and categories) are to be agreed between unions and employer representatives by the end of February 2021. Unions and management will then decide how the fund will apply in each bargaining unit no later than the end of March 2021. Management and unions would then agree proposals, which must be submitted to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DEPR) for verification by the end of June 2021. Payment would fall due on 1st February 2022.

It will not be possible to discuss issues that are standard across grades, groups and categories (eg, overtime rates, weekly hours of attendance, leave entitlements, pension arrangements).

If the issue(s) identified for a grade, group or category can’t be fully addressed within the 1% allocation, the parties will have to agree which elements can be implemented within this agreement. Outstanding elements “will fall to be addressed in a future sectoral bargaining fund as part of the next agreement.”

No sectoral or grade-based claims will be allowed outside this process during the lifetime of the agreement.

Wheety

Civil Service got it.

BhoyRayzor

Civil servants are due a 1% pay increase with effect from 1st February 2022. The money is expected to appear on pay slips soon, after the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) sanctioned the increase last week.

It’s the latest instalment of the Building Momentum public service deal, negotiated by Fórsa. Last month we reported that the independent body, also established under the agreement, has recommended that working time be restored to pre-austerity levels for virtually all public servants from 1st July 2022. 

The 1% February payment comes from the agreement’s ‘sectoral bargaining fund.’ It gave individual groups, grades and categories of civil servants the choice of a straight 1% increase or the option to use the allocation to deal with outstanding claims.

Fórsa’s National Executive decided to opt for a straight 1% pay round after consultation across the with the five Fórsa divisions that include clerical and executive staff. The decision was also informed by a large-sample opinion survey of members in the grades, in which over 90% opted for the 1% option.

Building Momentum also includes two general round increases, each worth 1% or €500 a year, whichever is the greater. One was paid on 1st October 2021, and the other is due on 1st October 2022.

Geuze

Any word on the wider public service?

Jmc25

Yes hilariously the civil service branch of Forsa decided to use the fund designed to fix recession legacy issues give everyone a 1 per cent payrise, instead of, you know, using it to fix recession legacy issues.

New entrants in the CS still start on lower scale points than pre recession and will now forever more because if Forsa raise the issue again, they'll rightfully be told that they had the chance to do something about it and didn't.

Not sure if the other PS unions, or other divisions of Forsa, did the same thing.

c0rk3r

What's the hold up for public servants? It's been two weeks and no new circular. Fairly bad form.

BJG524

It has been added and is in the next pay date

wench

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118630036#Comment_118630036

The circular was published on 27 Jan - 04/2022

https://www.gov.ie/en/circular/ef515-application-of-1st-february-2022-pay-adjustments/

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118634091#Comment_118634091

That circular applies to civil servants.

What about the wider public service?

Civil service is maybe 10% of the public service.

Geuze

Still no word on this third 1%?

Geuze

I checked my March payslip, we are up 1%. 

Plus one month’s arrears.

So in my sector, the extra sectoral bargaining 1% seems to have been paid as a general 1% increase.

Strange that there wasn’t much discussion about it.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118966436#Comment_118966436

Most unions decided to take the 1% as a flat pay increase.

Something different in the education sector.

Forsa used the 1% for Special Needs Assistants to add a long-service increment to give them a differential over the Grade III scale at the top, but falls behind now in the rest of the scale.

Teacher unions are doing some other things with it, still in negotiations I believe.

The nursing unions also looking to deal with legacy issues, haven't heard how that turned out.

KerryM9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967131#Comment_118967131

I don't get that (Forsa part in particular), so did civil servants not in a trade union get 1% and those in a union forego it? Do payroll have to adjust the pay for union people versus non union people? Can't get my head around it at all.

Anyone got any guesses about the outcome from the talks on the review of the current paydeal and the extension of it, likely for 12 months?

My guess is the pay increase on 1st October will be increased to 3% instead.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118967420#Comment_118967420

No, union and non-union people treated the same.

The union gets to decide for everyone in the grades they represent.