This Union organises, negotiates for and campaigns with workers and communities who suffer various forms of discrimination and disadvantage, workers who are on low incomes, who are marginalised or socially excluded for whatever reason.

Now more than ever we need to stay grounded, caring, and resilient in the face of far-right hate and extremism. This Conference commits our Union to doing all we can to stop hate organising in our communities and workplaces, and calls on the NEC to support Shop Stewards, Activists and members through education and training, and furthermore by making our union welcoming in every way possible to people living and working in our communities.

Contract Services workers in Catering, Cleaning & Security, many of whom are frontline workers, carried out essential duties during the Pandemic. These vulnerable low paid workers did their bit for the country at its most difficult time, when there were no vaccines and very questionable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Many of these vulnerable workers became very sick with Covid.

Conference notes that unfortunately, this is not recognised by their employers as they continue to be undervalued, underpaid, and overworked.

This lack of respect and value extended to the State, when they were excluded from the Covid Recognition Bonus Payment, which was given to all workers working in a clinical health care setting, during the height of the Covid Pandemic. They were only included following a long hard- fought campaign.

In addition to this, the State still has not challenged a High Court injunction, August 2022. This injunction, granted to three security employers, prohibits the Minister for Enterprise and Employment from signing into law pay increases for security guards. The net effect of this being, in real terms, not only have these security workers not received a pay increase since 2019, currently there is no industry mechanism to determine their pay. When the full story of the Covid Pandemic in Ireland is written, the contribution made by these essential frontline workers should be will be acknowledged.

The conference calls on the National Executive Council to support a campaign by SIPTU members employed in the Contract Services Sector to force employers to agree pay & conditions which will fully reflect this.

Conference notes the HSE has stated its priority is to develop six regional health areas (RHAs) in 2024. These new areas were recommended as part of the roll out of the Sláintecare programme. This will effectively establish six autonomous areas who have their own budget and decision-making capacity. This will present a significant change to the current nationalised system of authority which has been in place within the HSE since 2005. The Health Division acknowledges the need for change from the current bureaucratic system of governance within the HSE. If implemented correctly, the Sláintecare programme will deliver many positive changes for the provision of our public health service. Notwithstanding this, our members are deeply concerned at the potential for change which negatively affects our members’ conditions of employment which may be advanced under the umbrella of reform. This motion calls on the National Joint Council to support a campaign which highlights the need to protect the existing terms and conditions of employment which have been hard won for our members over many years throughout any reform programme which may be advanced in the months ahead.

Ireland has the highest living costs in the European Union. Even after the current cost-of-living crisis subsides, workers in Ireland will still be caught in a cost-of-living crisis. This is a burden on the productive economy and living standards.

Conference believes that high living costs are a trade union and workers’ issue, and calls on the National Executive Council, working with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Nevin Economic Research Institute and other trade unions, to both highlight the reasons behind our high living costs and propose policies that can reverse this trend and reduce these costs. Such policies could include:

• Reducing the cost of accessing an increasing number of public services

• Treating energy and housing as public goods, rather than market commodities

• Price regulation in key economic sectors

Revenue raised through extending the tax base (for example, extending USC to capital gains) should be directed into providing public services for free or at affordable rates; in particular, services directed at households with children (for example, reduced childcare costs and extending the free school books scheme to secondary students). These and other policies have the capacity to reduce living costs and, so, improve workers’ living standards and promote productive economic activity.

Conference notes, with concern, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and with particular reference to the rising costs of basic necessities such as food, energy, and housing. The Services Division is primarily made up of low paid sectors, where the minimum wage is the norm and workers have to rely on “piece work” type bonuses or tips to make ends meet.

Consequently, Conference calls on the National Executive Council to continue to:

(a) fully support members in the Private Sector, who wish to pursue Industrial Action and Strike Action in pursuance of obtaining improvements in their pay and terms and conditions of employment so as to combat such cost-of- living pressures,

(b) lobby government through the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to adopt measures to ease the burden on working people and their families.

Given the current cost of living crisis and consequently income pressures placed on our members. Conference calls on the Government to immediately introduce significant measures to resolve the cost of living crisis.

Conference calls on the National Executive Council (NEC) to campaign and lobby government for the restitution of the funds levied from all Private Sector Pension Schemes between 2011 and 2015. As a result of the austerity measures introduced on foot of the financial crash, the Government of the day introduced this levy on all pension schemes. The levy was set at 0.6% of assets held by each scheme during 2011, 2012 and 2013. It rose to 0.75% of assets held in 2014 and fell to 0.15% of assets in 2015. Over this period, it generated in excess of €2.5 billion for the exchequer and this was used for job creation which included the VAT reduction in the hospitality sector. As there is now a significant surplus in the exchequer, and the Government is rolling out auto-enrolment in private pensions schemes, SIPTU should campaign to have monies taken out reimbursed to the schemes as this will assist schemes in financial hardship and send the right signal to those being auto-enrolled in private scheme.

Conference commends the Cork activists and officials, the national officers and the NEC for their initiative and support for the Raise The Roof housing demonstration in Cork city earlier this year on 10th June 2023.

Conference recommends similar regional and local housing activities for our District Councils, local organisations and Trades Councils delegates, alongside housing campaigns and advocates and civil society organisations in close association with Raise The Roof.

Conference recognises the value of local, regional and community-based activities on housing to complement the national housing activities of our Union and of Raise The Roof.

Conference calls on the NEC to continue its demand that the ever-worsening housing crisis be tackled through the many trade union proposals agreed by our Union and by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Conference further calls on the NEC to ensure the continuing engagement of our Union with the ICTU-led Raise the Roof housing campaign."

Submitted by Dublin District Council

Ireland’s tourism and hospitality sector is central to the vitality of the Irish economy. There is growing evidence that workers in the sector face real obstacles to a decent working life. Workers report issues with wages, employment precarity, harmful workplace behaviours, and trade union access. It is acknowledged by government that the sectors are struggling to attract workers and with skill shortages due to widespread poor pay and working conditions in many parts of the tourism and hospitality sectors.

Conference calls on the National Executive Committee to adopt a proactive lobby to ensure that the Government fully utilises the key recommendations relating to hospitality workers contained in the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media - Working Conditions and Skills Shortages in Ireland’s Tourism and Hospitality Sector report. In particular, to adopt the recommendation regarding the re-establishment of the Joint Labour Committees relating to tourism and hospitality, to provide a process for fixing statutory minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment for workers.

Conference notes that there are over 1 million people aged 60 years or over and over 720,000 people aged 65 years or older in the Republic of Ireland. Older and retired people need strong institutions to promote and enforce their rights and to ensure that their voices are heard. This conference calls on the Government to establish a Commissioner for Ageing and Older People with the necessary legal and budgetary resources to carry out its function.

Conference welcomes the increase in the limit of the small benefit exemption to €1000 in January, 2022. Conference calls on the National Executive Council to seek a review of the rules operating the exemption to see an increased flexibility on the conditions for which a voucher can qualify and in the number of vouchers a worker can receive tax free in the year, within the €1000 limit.

This conference welcomes the interim amendment to the Small Benefit Exemption Scheme to allow for two annual payments to a maximum combined value of €1,000. However Conference also notes with concern revenue restrictions under section 112B of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA 1997).

Conference exhorts the NEC to campaign for an amendment to the Act to secure greater freedom for negotiators during pay talks. In particular, this campaign for an amendment should focus upon the limitations around the contractual nature of any payment secured.

This conference resolves that all workers should have the right to access remote/flexible working as a standard condition of employment, where this is reasonable and feasible. Access to remote/blended working should be through a fair application process with the right to appeal to an impartial party in cases of refusal by the employer.

In light of a number of pilots being run in employments across the Public Sector over the last year, we should also resolve that any review should involve significant early member consultation, and meaningful negotiation and consultation with SIPTU. We also request that the flexi- time and flexi-leave arrangements being afforded to the Civil Service by the Department of Public Expenditure & reform as part of their own Remote Working Pilots be reciprocated across the Public Service, and that such existing schemes should revert to the status quo ante as per the pre-Covid Rules.

Addendum to Motion No. 13

Galway District Council wishes to submit an amendment to Motion 13 Remote/Blended Working which is in the name of the Education Sector, as follows:

It’s the last sentence of the motion.

. . . afforded to the Civil Service by the Department of Public Expenditure & reform as part of their own Remote Working Pilots be reciprocated across the Public Service . . . amend by replacing reciprocated with replicated

. . . afforded to the Civil Service by the Department of Public Expenditure & reform as part of their own Remote Working Pilots be replicated across the Public Service . .

Submitted by Galway District Council

Conference welcomes the decision approved by the National Executive Council to permanently staff District Centres. Conference calls on the NEC to implement this decision as a matter of urgency and examine the future of all Union premises and Welcome Centres to give clarity as to the Union’s local presence across the island.