THE CONTROVERSIAL measures in the Budget could pose difficulties for social partnership, union leaders told the Taoiseach yesterday.
Following a meeting in Government Buildings, union representatives said they had set out their concerns at the thrust of the Budget and how it impacted disproportionately on middle and lower-income groups.
The unions are particularly concerned at the introduction of the 1 per cent levy on all workers, including those on lower incomes, and the removal of automatic medical cards from persons over 70.
The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, said the additional 0.5 per cent provided for low-paid workers in the new national pay deal had effectively been wiped out by the 1 per cent income levy introduced in the Budget.
He said although he accepted that some necessary economic corrections were necessary, he believed the Budget to be unfair.
He said it had placed the union movement in a difficult if not impossible position.
Mr Begg again warned of the danger that union members could vote against the proposed new national pay deal in ballots currently under way if they used their vote as a referendum on the Budget. However, he cautioned members that if they rejected the pay deal they would still be stuck with the Budget and its unfairness.
He also suggested that a better deal might not be possible to negotiate at local level with employers in the current climate.
At the meeting with the Taoiseach union leaders also raised the issue of the removal of medical cards from the over-70s, proposed education cutbacks and the 280 job losses at Waterford Crystal.
On the medical card issues, Mr Begg said the unions would be seeking a review of the thresholds for eligibility.
He said there was a "hell of a difference between people being very rich and those having €240 a week" - the current Government threshold for qualifying for medical cards.
Speaking after the meeting, Jack O'Connor, the president of Siptu - the country's largest union - said they had made their case very clearly regarding the Budget. They had outlined the implications for the social partnership process, and the implications for the long-term interest of the economy and people generally in Ireland.
"It remains to be seen whether they assimilated all we had to say," he said.
Mr O'Connor said the Taoiseach had outlined the Government's rationale for the Budget, and had cited the degree of progress made over the social partnership years in alleviating the tax burden for low and middle-income earners.
He said Mr Cowen had also made the point that the country was now in changed circumstances, and that the Government was faced with the challenge of meeting the Exchequer deficit and sustaining the economy.
Asked whether any progress had been made in relation to the unions' concerns, Mr O'Connor said: "We did not come expecting that there was some ready-made solution or that the Taoiseach, midway through the meeting, would take a different position than that taken by the Government to date.
"We did come here to outline what the consequences were of the course that it suggests over the medium term."
The national executive of Siptu deferred a decision last Wednesday on whether to recommend the new national pay deal in a ballot until after the outcome of the meeting with the Taoiseach.
The Siptu executive is due to meet again next Wednesday.
A Government spokesman said the meeting had been "useful", and that both sides would reflect on the issues.