A LABOUR councillor and Siptu activist has called on his party to recognise the need for public sector reform and accused trade union leaders of avoiding the issue.
James Kennedy, a member of Mallow Town Council, in Co Cork, and chairman of the Siptu shop stewards at the local Dairygold plant, said he believed there was a particular onus on his party to articulate this policy.
“If Labour is to continue to advocate, as I believe we should and must, that proper, decent and caring public services are essential to the creation of a just, fair and compassionate society, then that same public sector must be fit for purpose and have an ethos of service that is open and accountable,” he said.
Mr Kennedy, a member of the Labour Party for 30 years and poll-topper at the last local elections, told The Irish Times that there had to be “at least a modicum of equity” in remuneration and pensions in the public and private sectors. “It is no use for trade union leaders to duck this issue with facile calls for the need for the private sector to aspire to public sector wages and conditions,” he added. “We are basically operating in a small open economy, trading with the rest of the world, and having to accept prices for our goods and services that are set by world markets.”
Mr Kennedy said the party must speak with an equal voice for public and private sector employees.