Threat of civil disobedience and the legitimacy of industrial action taken on April 26th 2023.
Dear Department of Finance (Northern Ireland),
In a recent interview on the BBC Nolan show https://fb.watch/kM67gthAUi/ a Deputy General Secretary of the Northern Ireland Public Sector Alliance (NIPSA), suggested that civil servants might engage in civil disobedience, to include “occupations”, as a form of protest in relation to what they consider to be their just pay claim.
The occupation of public buildings can constitute an offence under part 23 of the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisi/1987/... .
Given the fact that NIPSA failed to meet the legal obligations under parts 29 and 112 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 where it failed to publish the details required to legitimize the ballot until May 15th 2023 (as evidenced in the link title) https://nipsa.org.uk/attachments/article... and in doing so has induced its membership to participate in illegal industrial action on April 26th past, please confirm how you intend to address these issues of flagrant disregard for the law and what contingencies you have in place to ensure that public services are not adversely affected by such actions going forward.
Yours faithfully,
Brian Goodfellow
Good afternoon,
The Department of Finance acknowledges receipt of your request for information – your reference number is DOF/2023-0209. In line with FOI/EIR legislation, the department has up to 20 working days to respond to your request and therefore you should expect a response no later than 26/06/2023.
The department’s Right to Know leaflet provides an outline of your rights under the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations, and explains how your request will be dealt with. You can also read the department’s Information Access Requests Privacy Notice.
Please note, information released by the Department of Finance in response to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations requests is routinely published on the department’s FOI/EIR Disclosure Log.
Regards
FOI/EIR Team
Good afternoon,
Please see attached response to your recent request for information.
Regards
FOI/EIR Team
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