THE PUBLIC service committee of the Irish Congress of the Trade Unions (Ictu) has moved to shore up support for the public sector pay and reform deal reached with Government negotiators earlier this week.
The committee yesterday issued a statement describing the proposed agreement as “the best approach to protecting public services and the people who deliver them” that could be achieved through such negotiations.
“While there are few guarantees available in the current economic crisis, these proposals hold out the hope that our public services can be better managed and delivered,” it said.
“Public servants will see some certainty over their pay, jobs and pensions, with the prospect of restoring pay cuts over time as reforms deliver verified savings.”
Senior union sources yesterday indicated that members were unlikely to reach a final decision on the proposed agreement until the middle or end of May.
When the balloting is complete, it is understood union leaders will take the mandate of their members to the Ictu public service committee, where a vote will take place. The voting strength of each union will be determined by the size of its membership.
This means that if the larger unions such as Impact and Siptu decide to support the deal, smaller groups such as the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), members of which have strongly criticised the proposal, may be unable to block its passage.
The Ictu committee also said the agreement on a mechanism to restore pay scales over time was “a significant advance on the current situation”.
However, it warned that there could be serious consequences if the deal was rejected by union members. “Most unions are mandated to intensify their industrial action to include work stoppages”.
The comments came as the executive committee of the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU), which represents about 10,000 low and mid-ranking civil servants, announced it would recommend that its members support the proposed agreement.
In the circular, PSEU general secretary Tom Geraghty said that he understood members’ anger and frustration at their current working situation, but he stressed that rejecting the proposals could leave them “vulnerable” to future pay cuts and redundancies.
“It is in members’ interests that they vote for a deal that protects their jobs and their pay, provides for a mechanism that creates a path to possible pay adjustments and gives unions a chance to input into the Government’s stated wish to interfere with pension structure,” he wrote.
“Not to adopt the proposals would be to leave members vulnerable in respect of these matters . . . [it is] in your own best interests to vote in favour.”
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation yesterday said its executive would meet on April 12th-13th to consider its view on the proposals and that it could not comment on the matter until then.
Meanwhile, an alliance of public sector workers in Co Kerry has expressed anger at the proposals stating that “no union leader should ever have brought these proposals to the members”.
The Kerry Public Service Workers’ Alliance, which includes members of Siptu, Impact and the CPSU, yesterday called for an unconditional reversal of pay cuts imposed on public sector workers last year.
John Fitzgerald, a Siptu fire service member, said that the general secretaries of the unions were completely out of touch with the workers that they represent.
“The proposals will be rejected as the members are the trade unions but we will also demand reform at the top of the unions so that we get real leadership from here on.”