BUSINESS IN the Oireachtas is set to be disrupted in the coming weeks following a decision by staff to intensify their campaign of industrial action in protest at pay cuts in the budget.
At a joint meeting yesterday, members of Impact, the PSEU and the CPSU who work in the Oireachtas agreed to draw up a new co-ordinated campaign of action.
Union leaders also said yesterday that their proposals for public sector reform “could be back on the table if the Government was prepared to negotiate on the basis that the pay cuts can be reversed if equivalent, or larger savings, are made through public service transformation”.
The Government has said that it wants to engage with the unions on public sector reform. However, Ministers have ruled out any reversal of the pay cuts introduced in the budget.
Speaking after the meeting in the Oireachtas, Impact national secretary Louise O’Donnell said the unions would not be giving advance notice of the timing and nature of their additional actions.
“Our members are coming into Oireachtas each day and diligently working for people who have voted to cut their pay twice in the last year.
“Union members at today’s meeting were clear that they wanted to co-ordinate their work-to-rule across the unions to up the ante and cause maximum irritation to the Government rather than the public,” she said.
Informed sources said among the issues for consideration would be a ban on answers to parliamentary questions issuing in the Oireachtas.
Members of some Civil Service unions are already refusing to deal with parliamentary questions in Government departments, although some answers are being prepared by management.
Meanwhile yesterday morning civil servants refused to open public counters in a number of Government departments such as Foreign Affairs, Education, Communications and Environment as well as in the Office of Public Works as part of the campaign of industrial action.
Unions also put in place a ban on answering phones in some departments yesterday afternoon.
Public service unions have deferred any major escalation of their campaign of industrial action for four weeks to allow the Government to decide on whether to engage with them.
Union leaders want the Government to engage with them in relation to the pay cuts, public sector pay policy overall as well as on pensions and job security.
In a statement yesterday, the unions said they rejected the Government’s view that there was “no alternative” to the pay cuts, and said they had “put forward an alternative approach last year, which would have delivered the payroll savings required by the Government in 2010 while ensuring that vital services were protected and enhanced as expenditure and staff numbers continued to fall in future years”.