Strike begins at Job Clubs in Offaly

A STRIKE began today at Job Clubs in Tullamore and Birr because of the Government decision to close the service at the end of this year.

A picket has been placed outside the office of the Offaly Local Development Company (OLDC) in Tullamore, where the Tullamore Job Club operated from, and the strike will continue tomorrow.

SIPTU, the union representing the staff affected, plans to escalate the industrial action with a three-day work stoppage next week and four days the following week.

Majella Finlay has been leader at the Tullamore Job Club for 20 years and during those two decades, she says 12,000 people have been assisted by the service.

About 6,000 gained employment while others moved on to further training and education or pursued other options.

Ms Finlay is to lose her own own job with the local service, along with another staff member, two staff at the Birr Job Club, and similar numbers in Portarlington and Portlaoise.

She recalled how the local job club was founded as a response to hundreds of people finding themselves out of work with the closure of the Lowe Alpine factory in Tullamore.

“It was decided [unemployed people] needed somewhere in Tullamore to go. It's always been community based,” she said.

Over time the service became part of a “wrap-around” offering to the community through the OLDC and she said that was “perfect for any individual who is looking to move on in life”.

The Department of Social Protection has decided to abolish the job clubs and local employment services and is tendering the work out to a private company, as has previously been done through JobPath.

Ms Finlay said the new service will be open to people on the jobseekers payment only, unlike the job clubs, whose advice was open to all and effectively provided a “walk-in” service.

“There is a huge cohort of unemployed people who won't be able to even use the [new] service.

By moving it out to a for-profit company, the individual then loses the wrap-around services that exist here and the person-centred approach that we've always adopted.

“We dealt with everybody, you didn't need to be unemployed. I'd be worried for people who are not in that situation... where are they going to go? Who's going to look after them?

“Even someone who's not on a jobseekers payment because their means don't allow them, maybe their partner is working, where does that person go? Where does someone on a disability payment go, a carer, a lone parent?”

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Potentially the dispute could run into Christmas week and Ms Finlay called on Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys to review the decision to end the service, an appeal which has already been made in the Dail.

“Obviously we hope it doesn't go on that far but we will keep going until there is a decision made to either give us our redundancy or revisit the whole [issue],” said Ms Finlay.

“As they said the other night in the Dail, if it's not broken why are you trying to fix it? We've always met our targets, we got our contract every year for 20 years without question, and then all of a sudden a private entity is able to come in.”

Cllr Sean O'Brien, a local Independent representative, joined Ms Finlay and her supporters on Monday morning when a picket was mounted at Main Street.

Cllr O'Brien said he was backing the Job Clubs because he was well aware of the work they had done, having worked for FAS himself.

“We supported this Job Club and we referred people to it when people would come to us. This was the best option because people got a great service, a personalised service, and I know several people who came back to me and said it was fabulous, the interview skills, the direction they were given, and preparing them for interviews,” said Cllr O'Brien.

After leaving FAS Cllr O'Brien worked for three years with the Ballyfermot Chapelizod Partnership in Dublin which had a job club on site and provided “a fantastic service”.

“We were overrun with people wanting to use the service and we had no vested interest. We were there just to help the people. It was part of the community and I think that is what was important,” said the councillor.

He said that under JobPath people were being put under “pressure” to apply for jobs that did not suit them and the service was neither professional nor personal.

“It is Fine Gael ideology which is running this and they not into public services, they're into the privatisation of public services which I'm completely opposed to. This has worked extremely well, so why change it?”

Peter Glynn, community sector organiser, SIPTU, said there was no need for the Department of Social Protection to tender for the new service.

Minister Humphreys has said the tender is necessary for legal reasons but Mr Glynn accused her of “hiding behind” advice from the attorney general and said both SIPTU and a joint Oireachtas committee had different legal advice.

He said the job clubs had been serving the community and vulnerable people very well and he called on the Government to maintain the existing service and allow further talks.

“From a SIPTU point of view we're asking for [the decision] to be put on hold and to extend the service and then we have an open forum to discuss what's best for the community sector,” said Mr Glynn.

He said the new service will be “profit-driven” and SIPTU also said the rights of existing job club staff were not being upheld by the transfer to the new proposed arrangement.

Minister Humphreys said earlier this year that the establishment of new regional employment services will be an improvement on the existing service.

The Department of Social Protection also said earlier this year that a competitive tender process was required because of a European Union directive on public procurement.

The contract for the Tullamore and Birr job clubs expires at the end of December.