Unions Back in Actions

• 6500 Electricians to strike in two weeks over pay rates – February ‘14

• SIPTU to set a picket at UCC’s Tyndall Institute over pay issues – February ‘14

• SIPTU 350 members at Shannon Aerospace are to ballot for industrial action at the end of this week – February ‘14

• Labour Court Proposal rejected by SIPTU Staff at Liebherr – January ‘14

These are some of the newspaper headlines over the last number of weeks. Sometimes they appear on the front page sometimes the articles are on the back page. However what is clear from all this, that for some months, that Irish unions are back in action.  Two central themes are coming up protection of pension arrangements, especially regarding Defined Benefit pension schemes and pay claims from around 2.5 % which need to be back dated over a couple of years.

If you heard SIPTU’s Jack O’ Connor on RTE Radio recently in discussion with Mark Fielding of ISME and RTE’s George Lee, well discussion you couldn’t really call it as Jack kept interrupting Mark and George consistently. Jack meant business and was highlighting that SIPTU had achieved pay increases in over 100 companies of around 2 – 2.5%.

What is clear is that the worst of the recession is over, the troika have left and the unions are claiming their fair share. With Irish unions this leads to a scramble for who can get most, with around 50 unions trying to out manoeuvre each other. You see Irish Industrial Relations has a tendency to reward the most militant unions, the ones with the highest demands. In industrial action it is not always important what the majority of employees in a company find reasonable and acceptable. No, if a majority of the members of one union decide something then that agenda has to be followed and it doesn’t matter that the union has only a minority of the employees in the company. Here are some golden rules to apply if wage bargaining is to be an issue: -

1.    Do not negotiate if you do not have to. In most small and medium size companies there is no union recognition and no agreement with the union that new salaries have to be negotiated. So if you do not have an agreement with a union do not negotiate even if the unions would like to have a place at the table.

2.    Setting the agenda. Many companies have been caught out by starting talks and not sorting out the agenda and procedure. You could be making a far reaching deal with the union officials only to be confronted with the fact that the union members have the final say on it and reject it. The already far reaching deal has to be renegotiated to include even more concessions. Set up and organise a clear agenda and procedure under which the negotiations take place. Make it clear that what happens when a deal is negotiated and if the union insists that their members have the final vote before it can be accepted, maybe your management board has to have the final vote on it as well and can reject it as well as too far reaching. 

3.    Setting your own objectives. Establish what wage increases you can afford and define three possible settlements from your company’s point of view: the ideal or best possible deal, a realistic or best possible settlement and the worst, though still acceptable settlement. Before setting these objectives make sure you know where your company’s stands compared to other companies in areas such as salary, benefits, compensation, economic growth etc. Know your salary levels compared to your industrial sector and regional salary levels. Is your company paying above or below the average salary levels in your industrial sector and region? Are your benefits and compensation on a par with other industries? Most likely unions will start negotiating with companies they perceive as easy targets to set a trend in wage negations. Always focus on your own situation and make it clear to the union that your company cannot be compared to these easy targets.

4.    Preparing the case. Once the objectives have been defined, it is necessary to put a case for negotiation together. The bargaining process is one in which attitudes are swayed by a complex mixture of facts, logic, interest, fears and pride. Preparation involves consideration of the information which will be needed to support the case being made. It is essential to consider this from the other party’s view point. Try to establish the unions and employees objectives at the wage negotiations. Try to find out what they negotiated at other companies. Hold a mock bargaining round and let some managers play devil’s advocate, examining your company’s position and probing the company’s arguments for weak points and prepare your answers for the real event.

5.    Communicate. Before, during and after the wage negotiation keep communicating with your staff, in particular your managers, supervisors and team leaders regarding the company’s point of view and need. Make sure that your managers and supervisors are all aware of these essential points which will ensure the company’s survival. I do not mean to give away the bargaining plan, however, keep them abreast of what you can do regarding wages and benefits and if union objectives are in the interest of the company. Very often only the union communicates effectively with employees during this phase and this will lead to high and unrealistic expectations and difficulties with staff once an agreement is reached.

These are just a few of the practical personnel solutions regarding wage negotiations. There are many more issues to address and many pitfalls to watch out for. If in the next few months you require advice regarding wage negotiations or are suddenly caught in the middle of wage negotiations, I would be delighted to give you any assistance you may need in these uncertain and difficult times.

If you want to discuss People Management with me do not hesitate to contact me at 065 7071933. 

Personal Development Plan

As part of any good Performance Management System for a company there should be included Personal Development Plans for the employees. From a HR perspective you can only develop a company through its employees. Employees who stop developing will eventually become a burden to the company.

At the start of the year when performance objectives are set, is the right time to develop Personal Development Plans (PDP).

Personal Development Planning aims to promote learning and provide people with the knowledge and portfolio of transferable skills that will help to progress their careers and further develop the organisation. A development plan for employees is essential. At the start of the year a manager needs to identify where an employee is and where the employee could be further developed to assist the company in their development as well.

There are five stages in preparing a Personal Development Plan, these are:-

Ø  Identify development needs

Ø  Identifying the company’s development needs

Ø  Identify means to link both needs

Ø  Plan action

Ø  Implement

A Personal Development Plan (PDP) is an important part of the performance management system. It is a plan on which to record where the level of competence is met but where we would like to develop further, any training and / or development needed to support the delivery of that objective and any gaps in skills, knowledge or behaviour that need to be overcome in order to meet our objectives.

It gives jobholders and line managers the opportunity to:

Ø  Identify, discuss and agree development needs for the year ahead

Ø  Prioritise and plan how these will be addressed and achieved

Ø  Agree and set dates for reviewing the plan

Ø  If necessary, plan how poor performance might be improved

The implementation is mainly the responsibility of the individual – PDP is largely about self-managed learning. Managers have a responsibility to provide coaching, give support and to organise formal training. Managers must also ensure that individuals are given the opportunity to implement their PDP, which may include time off the job to complete training.

The introduction of PDP should not be undertaken lightly. It is not just a matter of designing a new back page to the performance review form and telling people to fill it in. Neither is it sufficient just to issue guidance notes and expect people to go with it.

Managers, team leaders and individuals all must learn about PDP. They should talk to the employees, encourage them to develop themselves and need to give suggestions which development might benefit the employee and company. The benefits to both should be understood and accepted.  It has to be recognised that everyone will need time and support to adjust to a culture in which they have to take more responsibilities for their own development.

Personal Engagement

An "engaged employee" is one who is fully absorbed by and enthusiastic about their work and so takes positive action to further the organization’s reputation and interests. Last week our local CIPD Midwest committee and the University of Limerick organised a seminar on Employee Engagement which was a big success as 92 people attended this seminar. For the CIPD Midwest this was probably the highest number of people ever attending such an event. This success was due to the involvement of the Human Resource Section of the University of Limerick. A big thank you to them!

There were four speakers at the seminar, three from UL; Sarah MacCurtain, Michelle Hammond and Paddy Gunnigle and one outside speaker Kieran Dunne from MSD, who from practical experience spoke about a major change process in a Multinational and how to engage with employees during such a process. In all it was an excellent seminar!

I was intrigued by Sarah MacCurtain’s lecture regarding a more personal engagement. Sarah asked the question how engaged are you yourself? Great to increase the engagement of all staff members but if you are not engaged yourself how can you ask others to be so? As a manager you need to establish what engages you and how visibly engaged you are with your work and company. Your levels of engagement have an effect on your employees as employees will spot if you are not really engaged and just going through the motions. So as a manager check how engaged you are and increase if necessary your own levels of engagement before trying to engage others with work and company.

Furthermore the levels of trust between a manager and his employees are critical for the success of the engagement process. If there is no trust then it will be difficult to engage the employees. Trust is something which doesn’t happen overnight it has to be nurtured over a period of time where a manager in his dealings with staff members has proven to be trustworthy, in effect he does what he says he will do and the manager is working both for the good of the company and the staff members. If you have a manager who is engaged himself and trustworthy then he could try to successfully engage his workers to increase their engagement themselves.

There is one more element which is important and that is integrity. Basically you are honest and will tell the truth when it matters, because if a manager has integrity you will trust him.

It shows the importance of the manager’s behaviour. You might say that this is too much for me as my behaviour can’t be held to scrutiny in such a way. Unfortunately as a leader and manager you need to be congruent in your day to day actions. That is the basic requirement to successfully engage others.

You might say this isn’t worth it. However I might remind you that in the seminar it was highlighted that research from the Hay Group finds that organisations with highly engaged employees outperform those with the most disengaged employees, by 54% in employee retention, by 89% in customer satisfaction, and by 400% in revenue growth. It is pays as a manager to be trustworthy, have high levels of integrity and behave in a congruent manner.

The global financial crisis has, however, taken its toll on engagement, as employees endure pay freezes, benefit cuts and layoffs. As a result it is even more important to be trustworthy as a manager!

Changes which might affect you in 2014

I attended the annual CIPD Employment Law Update last w eek. It is always one of the better attended meetings of the CIPD Midwest, the HR practitioners’ organisation. This year the presentation was give by Sinead Mullins of IBEC Midwest she stood in for a sick colleague from IBEC HQ. Sinead gave a very informative presentation.

There are three changes which might affect your company as of the start of January 2014: -

·         State Pension

The first upcoming change is the raise in the State pension age from 65 to 66 as of the 1^st January 2014. Further changes are planned in the coming years with a further rising of the State pension age to 68 years in the coming years. This means that those who turn 65 after that date will not be eligible for a pension and must wait until their 66^th birthday to receive the State pension.

A company who has a retirement policy which states that the employee retires at 65 years of age, what should they do? If the company has a retirement age of 65 years of age nothing really changes the employee should still retire at that age. Most companies are planning to keep the retirement age the same and are waiting to see if there are further developments regarding this.

If you don’t have a retirement policy as a company what is the situation then. A company with no retirement age the employees themselves can decide at what stage of their life they wish to retire. If the company forces the employees out at the age of 65 or 66 they can bring a claim under age discrimination against the company.

·         Maternity Benefit

Budget 2014 announced a standardisation of the rate of maternity / adoptive benefits to a reduced payment of €230 per week for all new claimants from 6^th January 2014. Employers who top up the maternity benefit to normal pay could acquire an additional cost of up to €32 per week of paid maternity leave.

Company who don’t pay any payments during the maternity leave this change doesn’t directly affect their cost. However women on maternity leave will get less benefits during their maternity leave and this might put pressure to have the company contribute something to the maternity benefits. It could also put pressure on women to take shorter maternity leaves.

• Sick Pay

The number of waiting days for entitlements to illness benefit will be increased from three days to six days from 6^th January 2014. An employee will not be entitled to sick pay benefit from the Department of Social Protection for the first six days of any period of incapacity for work.

Company who cover Sick pay for the first six days or more will be affected by this as there will be no social welfare benefits for the first six days coming to the employee and the company might be responsible for paying the first six days alone. Companies who do not pay for sick leave will be not directly affected by this change. However there will be more pressure from employees to organise some sick leave benefits.