The State's largest public service union will lay down a marker today on benchmarking when delegates convene in Cork, reports Padraig Yeates
After the general election IMPACT's general secretary, Mr Peter McLoone, said the make-up of the government wouldn't matter. As far as he was concerned, "the big thing" was going to be the benchmarking report on June 30th.
Publication of the Public Service Benchmarking Body (PSBB) report will certainly dominate the opening session of the IMPACT conference today.
If the sums come out right, Mr McLoone predicts it might provide a new basis for public service pay determination well into the future. If they come out wrong, then it is unlikely the 43,000- strong union will endorse another national agreement.
The most likely scenario is that the PSBB results will please some members but not others. The union is unlikely to follow the nurses and teachers in setting ballpark figures of 30 per cent on their claims and refusing to settle for anything less.
Like SIPTU, IMPACT also has the problem of a membership ranging widely from cleaners to the chief executive officers of hospitals and health boards.
This helps give it a wider view than vocational unions such as those for nurses, teachers and bank officials, but it also creates potential tensions.
For example, how to reconcile the aspirations of nursing members for parity with paramedics, with the latter's desire to maintain relativities, or the desire for both groups to seek big increases on the back of those recently conceded to childcare workers.
There is also the wider issue of how to square the expectations of almost 300,000 public service employees that they will receive significant pay rises under benchmarking with resistance from employers and the Government to any tax increases in the changed economic climate.
If the present coalition continues there will be the added complication that the Progressive Democrats' leader, Ms Harney, made a pre-election pledge that her party would "guarantee" income taxpayers against any increases if returned to power.
As the leading public service union, IMPACT will push the argument that "quality-of-life" issues must take priority over tax breaks, which disproportionately benefit the better off. What Mr McLoone refers to as "the unique institutional position" of the PSBB is another complication.
The body was set up under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and will cease to exist once it has issued its report. It will not negotiate with unions on its findings, and there is no appeal mechanism.
Another unusual feature is that the incoming government is already committed to paying 25 per cent of whatever the PSBB awards to State employees, backdated to last December 1st.
Mr McLoone says his members are likely to assess the report on the basis of how it performs, compared with more traditional mechanisms, what improvements it proposes and whether there is a new national agreement.
If there is a new agreement it may provide a basis for phasing in the PSBB increases. If there is not, IMPACT, like every other union, will fall back on more traditional ways of doing business, which could include a resurgence of industrial conflict.