Thousands of civil servants protest

LOWER-PAID civil servants have warned that their protest action against the Government’s new pension levy may escalate in the weeks ahead.

Several thousand members of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) yesterday staged one-hour lunchtime protests outside Government offices around the country.

CPSU general secretary Blair Horan said members remained very angry at the levy and were in dread of what was going to come in the budget next month.

The CPSU also said last night that top civil servants had “a vested interest” in introducing a pension levy to help protect their extraordinarily generous pay and pension arrangements.

Mr Horan said his members wanted to send out a signal to the Government that reductions in pay through the pension levy on top of the refusal to pay increases of about 6 per cent under the national wage deal agreed last autumn were unacceptable.

Mr Horan warned that the protests against the levy would continue and could escalate in the weeks ahead if necessary.

“If it turns out that the level of protest does not succeed in bringing about any change in circumstances, then the CPSU executive may have to consider more serious industrial action,” he said.

He said the union’s annual conference was scheduled for the beginning of April and this could have a bearing on this decision.

The CPSU is expected to hold a further protest against the levy next week. This could involve either a further lunchtime protest or a stoppage for an hour or more in the morning.

Meanwhile, in a statement last night the CPSU said top civil servants “who led the country from boom to bust”, had done extraordinarily well over the past decade on their pay and pensions.

The union said that since 2000 the salary of a secretary general in a Government department had increased by 93 per cent.

The CPSU said that in addition to general salary increases, the review body on higher remuneration in the public sector – which makes recommendations on top-level salaries – “had rewarded them with three special increases” over the same period.

It said these special increases amounted to 15.8 per cent in 2000, 7.5 per cent in 2005 and 11.4 per cent in 2007.

“The effect of these massive pay hikes for top civil servants is that a secretary general who retired at the start of the boom in the late ’90s is now paid a pension equivalent to the salary they retired at,” Mr Horan said.

“Pensions up to €150,000 per annum apply and they don’t even have to pay the pension levy on it.

“This evidence shows that top civil servants had a vested interest in introducing a pension levy to help protect their extraordinarily generous pay and pension arrangements.”

He said that in contrast low-paid clerical officers would pay the pension levy in full on top of the 6.5 per cent they already paid for their pension.

He said that the majority of their pension would come from the old-age contributory pension, just the same as workers in the private sector.

“CPSU lower-paid members know that its not just top bankers and the elite who have done well from the Celtic Tiger boom,” Mr Horan said.

“Top civil and public servants have done very well indeed and in the circumstances their contribution to date to tackling the problem has been very modest.”

Last October secretaries general in government departments volunteered to take a reduction in pay of 10 per cent in their salaries.

The proposal was advanced as part of the Government’s initiative in the Budget to tackle growing difficulties in the public finances.