Irish Vocational Education Association

The Consultative Forum of IVEA, the VEC NPF and vocational education sector trade unions has been involved in intensive discussions at national level, most particularly over the last year, with a view to finalising a nationally agreed procedure for staff grievances that would operate in the vocational education sector. Critical to the agreement on the content of the Grievance Procedure which was on 31 March 2010, officially approved by the respective executives of the parties concerned to the Forum, is the commitment to train representatives from management and union alike, on the newly introduced Procedure but most importantly, to train around the skills of how to manage grievance/s at the lowest possible stage through positive interaction and skills enhancement.

To this end, a national training programme is being rolled out commencing on 13 April with session one taking place in Dublin and running over 7 sessions in total concluding on 18 May 2010. These sessions will be facilitated by the representatives from the Conciliation Service of the Labour Relations' Commission who have supported the Forum through advice, assistance, facilitation and a sterling commitment to ensure that training is meaningful to those who will attend. On behalf of the Consultative Forum membership, we wish to acknowledge with sincere appreciation, the particular assistance of Mr Brendan Cunningham and Mr Kevin Foley from the Conciliation Service. Brendan has been tasked with heading up the training and will also act as the official appeals officer under stage 4 of the newly introduced Procedure, where it applies.

A schedule of dates is available here and the session numbers are restricted for the purposes of skills-based training.

IVEA is also providing a secure bulletin board on a dedicated section of its website where queries common to the newly introduced Grievance Procedure or indeed to the training content, can be posted and addressed on substantive issues, by the Consultative Forum. IVEA wishes to thank all the members of the Forum for their personal input into what has proven to be a challenging but hopefully worthwhile Procedure.

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© IVEA 2012