The union representing lower-paid staff in the Civil Service has voted to withhold co-operation with reforms under the Croke Park Agreement.
The annual conference of the Civil Public Services Union (CPSU) in Athlone also voted this afternoon in favour of taking industrial action in the event of the Government introducing further pay cuts for its members.
CPSU general secretary Blair Horan said the decision by delegates at the conference effectively to block reforms under Croke Park meant that the union was now going to have to definitively set out its stance on the deal.
?It is going to be make-up-your-mind time. We are either in or out. We are not going to be able to continue with a policy of having it both ways?.
Members of the CPSU last year voted to reject the Croke Park agreement in a ballot.
However the conference heard yesterday that the union had so far adopted a policy of ?constructive ambiguity? about the agreement under which issues were considered pragmatically on a case-by?case basis.
Delegates voted decisively in favour of the motion proposed by the union?s Social Protection ? Dublin North branch which instructed its executive to withhold co-operation with reforms.
The motion said that such co-operation was clearly tied to a guarantee that there would be no further pay cuts before 2014.
However it said that union members experienced significant cuts in their take-home pay as a result of the Budget in December.