‘Turbulent winter’ in prospect if no progress made on public sector pay deal, union leader warns

A lack of progress on a new public sector pay deal has raised the prospect of “a turbulent winter and spring”, with the potential for the various groups of government employees to start lodging individual claims for better wages and conditions, a leading member of the unions’ negotiating team has said.

Speaking at the Siptu conference in Galway, which he will address on Tuesday, deputy general secretary John King said the team has still had no indication of any imminent invitation to talks despite the current deal expiring in just six weeks.

Members of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions public services committee will negotiate with the Government on behalf of some 350,000 workers.

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The invitation, which is expected to be agreed by Cabinet, marks the traditional start to the business end of the discussions. But with the two sides struggling to reach agreement on preliminary issues such as ongoing local claims in recent months, it has been delayed well beyond what seemed to be anticipated earlier in the year.

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It is understood that the issue was to be discussed by Government party leaders on Monday evening and may be added to the agenda for the Tuesday Cabinet meeting. In the meantime, however, Mr King said the union side was increasingly uncertain as to whether a deal could still be done by the end of December.

“The reality of it is that we’re coming close to the end of the year and [unless progress is made quickly] we won’t have an agreement. If that happens, unions will start consulting with our members,” he said.

Ensuring protective mechanisms against outsourcing are not breached would be a key priority, he said, while workers in the various sectors would also formulate pay claims.

“If it doesn’t move into a space where an agreement becomes possible, we would have to start talking to our members about pay claims and improvements to conditions of employment. It’s going to mean a turbulent winter or spring,” he said.

“The inevitable consequence of not having a deal is industrial action.”

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He declined to be drawn on what the union would seek in terms of pay increases if talks did get under way but there had been repeated indications that unions wanted rises that compensated their members for the recent jump in the cost of living.

The Government side has previously suggested that greater spending on public services should be factored into any negotiations on public sector pay. While Siptu general secretary Joe Cunningham told delegates on Monday moves to provide free text books, reduce bus fares and freeze childcare costs had to be acknowledged, he insisted much more needed to be done, particularly on housing.

“There have been some small positive steps,” he said, “and we have to acknowledge them but what we have seen is that we can reduce living costs by expanding public services that people can access for free. Those services should be provided on the basis of public need, though, not on the basis of the size of somebody’s bank account and the services should not be provided for profit.

“Nowhere are the problems more clearly seen at present than with housing where we have young men and women forced to live with their parents, tenants facing huge rents, students who can’t find accommodation and young couples who can’t even aspire to owning their own homes.”

The problems, he suggested might be complex but the solution was simple enough: “Build houses. Build public housing on public land. Build houses to rent at cost and to buy at cost. Stop treating housing as a market commodity when it is a social need. By building affordable public housing we can bring relief to hundreds of thousands of households, lower living costs and boost the productive economy. It is a win-win,” he said.