THE PRESIDENT of the country’s largest public service union has said there is little enthusiasm for the Croke Park agreement but it is “the best and safest port available to the good ship public services in a raging economic storm”.
In an address to Impact’s biennial delegate conference in Kilkenny last night, John Power said the agreement on public service pay and reform reached at Croke Park did not achieve everything the unions had sought.
“For me, the question is not ‘did we achieve everything we wanted to?’ The real question is ‘could we have achieved more by taking a different course of action?’ I am satisfied that the answer to both questions is: ‘No’,” he said.
Mr Power said observers had been shocked when Impact sought Labour Relations Commission clarifications of the Croke Park package because they tended to assume the union would support any agreement.
“Over the years, there has been some resentment in this union that others, particularly employers and Government, seem to believe that Impact will always endorse the agreements that emerge. So there was some shock and consternation out there when this executive said it wanted more clarity over the proposals before it was prepared to put them to ballot,” he said.
Mr Power said the Impact executive had recommended acceptance of the Croke Park deal to members because it represented the best and safest port available.
He criticised the Government’s policy on public services and the wider economy. He said the Government’s approach was to drive down wages, social welfare and pensions.
The central executive committee of Impact is to oppose motions tabled for the conference which call for industrial action to continue and for it to boycott negotiations on the Government’s transformation agenda until pay cuts are restored. The executive is also opposing a motion put forward by the union’s Dublin city branch proposing a motion of no confidence in its outgoing general secretary Peter McLoone for his stewardship over the last 18 months.
Mr McLoone is due to hand over to successor Shay Cody today.
While the 700 delegates will debate a range of issues over the next two days, the conference will be dominated by the issue of pay and the Croke Park agreement.
The conference will today hear a series of motions criticising pay cuts introduced by the Government while an emergency motion on the Croke Park accord may be put forward.
The Waterford city branch is to seek the threshold for the first phase of the restoration of pay to be set at those earning €50,000. The Croke Park deal sets this bar at €35,000.
The Clare branch is to criticise the campaign of industrial action over pay as being completely ineffective and to state that it caused more problems for members than for the Government. The conference will also hear proposals that public service staff should not have to retire at the age of 65.