LOWER-PAID civil servants are planning further protests against the Government’s new pension levy for public sector staff from early next month.
Their one-day strike yesterday closed Revenue and social welfare public offices through the State and disrupted services in Government departments.
The Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), which organised the strike, said it was supported by 100 per cent of its membership.
The union’s general secretary, Blair Horan, said it would be organising further industrial action on a regional basis from March 9th, possibly starting in the northwest.
He said this would be of a more limited nature, but would be an all-out strike along the lines of the action yesterday.
Mr Horan said the CPSU had not worked out all the details of the forthcoming action. However, the union would not do anything that affected payments to people who were unemployed.
In a statement last night, the CPSU said yesterday’s strike had resulted in the closure of public offices in most Government departments.
“Unfortunately, this did inconvenience the public but it was essential that lower-paid civil servants could demonstrate their anger at the Government’s decision,” it said.
Mr Horan said the union’s strike committee had authorised two shifts to work in the computer centre of the Department of Social and Family Affairs to ensure that unemployment payments could be made before the weekend.
He said this had ensured that around 30,000 people received their money by the weekend.
However, last night the Department of Social and Family Affairs warned that yesterday’s action may lead to delays in processing and paying thousands of new welfare claims.
“The department very much regrets any disruption of services to members of the public caused by this industrial action.
“Every effort is being made to limit the effect of the disruption for customers,” a spokeswoman said.
Officials say they will continue to monitor the situation and inform the public of the likely impact, if any, on services in the coming days.
Social welfare offices are due to reopen as normal this morning.
All of the 62 social welfare local offices, which typically serve cities and large towns, were closed to the public yesterday.
However, the 64 branch offices, which serve smaller towns, remained open. They are operated under contract by private individuals.
Mr Horan said the strike had been “an important statement” that the levy was particularly unfair to lower-paid workers.
“We are sending a message to Government that they need to think again on the levy, and hopefully they will.”
Mr Horan said the CPSU wanted the pension levy scrapped. The union believed the measure was, in effect, a pay cut and pay cuts were not part of the solution.
“We need to look at new measures in terms of taxation. Traditionally in the Civil Service we have accepted that when the budget situation gets difficult that all jobs will not be filled and all promotions will not be filled. It is our view that savings can be made without a pay cut.”
Mr Horan said the CPSU supported the Irish Congress of Trade Unions proposal for a social solidarity pact to assist economic recovery.
In Cork, CPSU members picketed a number of premises, including the social welfare offices on Hanover Street, the Passport Office and the Department of Agriculture offices on the South Mall, Cork Circuit Court on Washington Street and Cork District Court on Anglesea Street.
According to Helen Linehan, a clerical officer at Cork Circuit Court, the strikers received considerable support from members of the public who agreed with their stance that it should be the wealthy who should be taxed to make up for the shortfall in exchequer funding.
Her colleague, Mary Twomey, pointed out that, contrary to what some commentators suggested about public servants being overpaid, the reality for a clerical officer was that their starting salary was €23,000 and that after 17 years, it rose to a top level of €37,000.
“The support from the public has been fantastic,” said Ms Linehan. “They all know why we’re here over the Government proposal to impose a public pension levy but of course it’s not a pension levy – it’s a pay cut which we can ill-afford to pay.
“Our major problem is that they haven’t taken from the top guys, and if they started at the top and worked their way down, things mightn’t be so bad. But the way they’ve gone about this; we just can’t take it,” said Ms Linehan.