Begg warns of pay cut resistance

The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has said he would expect a "strong level of resistance" by public sector workers to Government proposals to cut their pay.

Speaking at a press conference on the Lisbon treaty this morning, David Begg said he would be very surprised if public sector workers would entertain any such proposition.

"I think they have gone as far as they are going to go in terms of the 7 per cent pay cut they have already taken," he said.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen yesterday signalled that the Government was considering reductions in its €20 billion public sector pay and pension bill.

The ESRI has suggested public sector pay levels were running up to 25 per cent ahead of those in the private sector.

Mr Begg said that it could be coincidental, but that the ESRI had an extraordinary knack of bringing out reports that were unhelpful whenever an engagement between the trade union movement and the Government was in prospect.

Later today Siptu’s general president Jack O’Connor also criticised the report saying it was a reworking” of an ESRI draft made public last December.

He said: “It confines its analysis of data to the period between March 2003 and March 2006, during which the benchmarking catch-up awards were being implemented.

“And it very conveniently omits the fact that before such catch-up, during the four year period to December 2002, public sector pay had been increasing at only half the rate of increase in the private sector.”

“It is high time that the propaganda onslaught on public sector workers, and on the lower paid workers among them in particular, is brought to an end”, Mr O’Connor addded.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Labour Party Eamon Gilmore warned a rejection of the Lisbon Treaty could impact on the economy and on jobs.

He said the Labour Party supported the Lisbon treaty because they believed it was good for the country and good for working people.

Mr Gilmore said he had no doubt that if the Lisbon Treaty was rejected, it would be interpreted internationally and by those who made investment decisions that Ireland was pulling back from the EU and was becoming semi-setached. He said this would have a negative impact on investment and employment in Ireland.