Ten thousand civil servants are being offered pay rises worth between 5 per cent and 29 per cent under a new arbitration award. They are to ballot on the terms over the next three weeks. If the package is accepted it will add an estimated £15 million to the public service pay bill, and the clerical staff involved will receive between £400 and £1,200 in back money. The award also provides for annual leave of 21 days. The current maximum is 19 days, and some staff covered by the award have only 18 days.
The outcome of the arbitration has been welcomed by the general secretary of the Civil and Public Service Union, Mr Blair Horan. He says he is particularly pleased at the increases being offered to some of the union's lowest-paid members and at the extra annual leave. The last increase in annual leave was 16 years ago.
Clerical civil servants have traditionally been poorly paid. The current scale runs from £161 a week to £239 for clerical assistants, and from £162 a week to £291 for clerical officers. The new scale will start at £166 and end at £314 a week.
About 1,500 clerical assistants will benefit from proposed promotion to higher points on the new scale. Another 1,500 clerical officers will benefit from promotions, as well as 300 staff officers. There are about 1,000 staff officers in the CPSU and their increase follows a pay award given to higher civil service grades in the Public Service Executive Union.
CPSU members have rejected two previous offers that arose out of direct negotiations between the union and the Department of Finance. They took limited industrial action last year in pursuit of bigger increases. The new award was made by an independent tribunal on which there was equal union and employer representation.
The CPSU executive is not recommending acceptance of the award, largely on the advice of Mr Horan. Militant elements in the union have used debates on previous ballots to attack the CPSU leadership. This time the hope is that debate will centre on the merits of the proposals rather than on whether the executive should have endorsed them. While some individuals may receive increases worth up to 29 per cent, the rises will be phased in over a number of years. The average increase will work out at 10.5 per cent.
In return, the CPSU is being asked to concede the elimination of 150 posts in the civil service, greater work flexibility and the recruitment of temporary part time staff.