Council services in Newry and Mourne set to be heavily impacted

Members of the GMB, NIPSA and SIPTU unions will begin industrial action from Monday (April 10) and will be joined by Unite from Wednesday (April 10).

The unions have warned that the industrial action, although confined to a ‘work-to-rule’ at this stage, is likely to result in significant impact to council services including those at leisure centres and with bin collections.

They say that the dispute centres on attempts by management to ditch an earlier commitment reached in 2021 to a partnership-based approach for job evaluations.

The work-to-rule will see workers refuse to take on overtime, tasks outside their job description, providing absentee cover or using their own vehicles for work purposes.

Spokesperson for the trade unions, Kevin Kelly said: “Members of all four trade unions at Newry, Mourne and Down District Council have lost confidence in management. They are reneging on written commitments entered into when the last dispute was concluded and they are both wanting to move away from a partnership-based approach to job evaluation but also remove allowances from new recruits creating a two-tier workforce. This is not something our members will accept.

“It is unbelievable that management believe they can insult the intelligence of our members. Do they think workers or their trade union representatives cannot read or understand the agreements reached. We are clear that this tactic will not work and we will take whatever action is required to ensure it stops.”