450 delegates will begin arriving in Kilkenny today for two separate Fórsa conferences.
250 will attend the Newpark Hotel for the Civil Service division representing 23,000 workers in the sector. While a further 200 head to Hotel Kilkenny for the Local Government & Local Services get-together on behalf of 9,000 local authority employees.
Both gatherings start at 4pm & continue to Friday.
Niall Shanahan is Communications Officer for Fórsa and says “Our divisional conferences are an opportunity for member activists around the country to come together & determine the union’s policy over the next couple of years”.
He notes “This year we have seen a fairly full agenda addressing a whole range of issues including things like pay & incomes, about working hours & working time and a number of other issues with local government. Obviously there continues to be concern about areas like Irish Water & the service level agreements under which local authority staff provide services to Irish Water”.
And he adds “It’s actually local branches who undertake the organisation of both conferences when we run divisional conferences like these. The local Fórsa branch both in civil service & local government act as our hosts so they’ve been busy over the last number of weeks & months working on making sure everything’s in place so obviously we owe a debt of gratitude to them”
