REPRESENTATIVES OF the 24/7 Frontline Service Alliance have said that threats by Government on the issues of premium pay and allowances will not be tolerated.
Speaking after talks with Government officials yesterday the alliance chairman Des Kavanagh said that any indication that these “core issues” would be interfered with was “not going to run” as far as the alliance was concerned.
“If there’s any action taken which in any way damages or undermines the premium pay of members or the allowances, then we’re into a very difficult situation,” he said.
The alliance, which represents public servants including nurses, gardaí, firefighters and prison officers, also said it would support three days of industrial action that are to take place in coming weeks, including the Ictu national day of protest on Friday next, as well as a march to be held by the alliance on November 11th.
Liam Doran, general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation said the separate unions were balloting for action to support the Siptu strike on November 24th. He said four of the six members of the alliance had ballots that were ongoing but said that, subject to those ballots, those unions that were in a position to support the strike would do so.
Alliance representatives added that, on foot of media reports, they had also sought an early meeting with the officers of the public services committee of Congress to discuss the talks with Government.
“Everyone is obviously increasingly concerned with the Government’s approach, which doesn’t seem to be wavering, and in trying to avoid confrontation, trying to find alternatives; and the alliance has a massive interest in what those interests might be and that’s why we want to meet the public services committee,” Mr Doran said.
Government has told trade unions that it wants to continue to cut the number of people employed in the public service. However, at talks yesterday afternoon, Government officials did not set out the level of cuts that will be sought in the coming years.
Speaking after talks at Government Buildings, the general secretary of Impact Peter McLoone said the Government had indicated its intention to cut public sector numbers but “did not go into the level of detail that we would have wanted”.
He said the Government had indicated it wanted to continue with the moratorium on recruitment in the public sector introduced several months ago.
Earlier yesterday a second public sector trade union leader indicated numbers on the State payroll may have to be cut as part of a solution to dealing with the problems of the public finances.
Arriving for talks on the public sector pay bill yesterday afternoon, Blair Horan of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) said in his view some reductions in numbers were “inevitable”.
He said the critical thing was that there would be no cuts in pay for relatively low-paid staff.
Earlier yesterday Impact general secretary Mr McLoone admitted any alternative plan agreed between unions and the Government to achieve savings would not be “painless”.
Talks have now adjourned until this afternoon at 2.30pm.