Ireland

Unions call for prompt payment of public sector pay increases after deal is ratified

Ballots at State’s biggest unions record margins of more than 90 per cent in favour

Civil and public servants should start to receive wage increases over the coming months

Emmet Malone Work Correspondent
Mon Mar 25 2024 - 21:17

Public sector employers must ensure there is no delay in paying the wage increase which was ratified on Monday morning, senior union figures said, citing previous delays under the last national pay agreement.

Almost 400,000 civil and public sector workers, including teachers, gardaí and HSE employees, will see their pay increase in the coming months. They will also receive additional sums to cover the back dating of the first phase of the deal to January 1st under the terms of the agreement which will cost the State about €3.6 billion.

Former public sector workers who are now pensioners will also be affected by the terms of the deal, which provides for overall increases of 10.25 per cent over 2½ years, along with TDs, Ministers and many trade union officials whose pay is linked to that of various grades in the Civil Service.

The first 2.25 per cent or €1,125 increase, whichever is greater, could start arriving in people’s accounts by the end of next month although May or June seem more realistic time frames.

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The deal was approved in ballots by members of 18 of the 19 Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) affiliated unions with public sector members, mostly by very wide margins.

The Veterinary Officers Association, which represents about 350 members, voted narrowly against it, having been unhappy with the way aspects of the previous deal had been implemented, but said it would be bound by the wider result.

After officials gathered in Dublin on Monday to formally ratify it, Phil Ní Sheaghdha of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said a repeat of delays relating to payments previously experienced by many employees of the HSE and other health service organisations would be “entirely unacceptable”.

Some nurses and midwives, she said, had to wait up to eight months before receiving the increases agreed as part of the extension of the Building Momentum deal finalised in late 2022.

“First and foremost, we want the employers to guarantee that they’ll pay what’s due now on time, because in the last agreement there were huge problems with delayed payments,” she said.

The complexity of the health sector landscape, the number of employers and lack of a centralised payroll system, the 140,000 employees, the wide range of roles and grades along with a number of separate, unrelated, adjustments to pay scales that were being processed at the time, contributed to issues in the sector the last time around.

The HSE acknowledged the historic payroll systems on Monday but said a new system is now in place in six of eight regions and due to be extended to a seventh in the coming months.

It welcomed the deal’s ratification of the deal, adding that “when the new pay scales are formally advised to the HSE by the Department of Health we will prioritise their implementation and will keep staff appraised”.

If money from the new deal is processed for the first time in June, employees earning up to €50,000 a year will receive about €550 before tax in that month’s pay packet as a result of the basic increase, just over €90 gross a month, and related back pay.

A civil or public servant earning €100,000 a year will get an initial lump sum of a little over €1,000 based on a monthly increase of €187. For one of the country’s highest paid civil servants, meanwhile, the general secretary of a government department earning €258,000, the additional money initially paid in June will amount to about €2,500 with ongoing increases of about €485 a month.

However, a second increase of 1 per cent of gross pay, to be received by all employees regardless of salary level, provided for under the terms of the deal, also kicks in on June 1st and could be paid to many employees that month. A further 1 per cent, or €500, whichever is greater, is due on October 1st.

Speaking after the meeting on Monday, Ictu public services committee chairman and Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said he would write to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, and the Workplace Relations Commission, to confirm the union side’s acceptance of the deal. However, the department itself had already been informed of the situation so as to facilitate the prompt processing of the increases involved.

In a statement, Mr Donohoe welcomed the endorsement of the deal’s terms and said it would continue “to underpin the ongoing transformation of our public services, allowing reform to continue in a collaborative and co-operative way”.

“I look forward to working constructively with Ictu to progress the implementation of the various measures in this agreement in support of the delivery of quality public services.”

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone

Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish Times

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