Securing voluntary agreement from public service workers for savings amounting to €1billion over three years was never going to be easy. And so it has proved. A majority of union members rejected the terms of a renegotiated Croke Park deal last month and risked statutory cuts to pay and pensions, along with widespread industrial unrest. Rather than blunder into immediate confrontation, however, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin called on Kieran Mulvey of the Labour Relations Commission to explore possible compromises. In what appears to have been a virtuoso performance, Mr Mulvey has, in many instances, managed to defuse contentious issues while offering alternative ways forward. A re-named Haddington Road Agreement has emerged.
Of course, not all trade unions are satisfied. The more militant teachers' unions, the ASTI and the TUI, rejected the terms on offer without putting them to their members. Other groups that led opposition to Croke Park II, such as nurses and lower-paid civil servants, have yet to make their positions clear. Balloting will take place in other unions, following recommendations for acceptance by their executives. An important difference between this exercise and that of Croke Park II is that a final decision will fall to individual unions, rather than to an aggregate of unions affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. On the last occasion, the closeness of the vote and the incompatibility of the views expressed by various union leaders threatened to sunder Congress.
There have been rumblings of dissatisfaction from some Fine Gael backbenchers because of Mr Howlin's willingness to re-engage with the trade unions and the perceived brittleness of the Labour Party. Such a response is ill-judged. Confrontation and strikes should always be a last resort. In this instance, Mr Howlin and the Government are attempting to minimise disruption within the public service while delivering on their budgetary arithmetic. That will require reductions in spending. With a July deadline looming, they have emphasised their determination to make savings through agreement or by diktat. Legislation giving effect to cuts in pay, pensions and increments will be introduced in the Dáil next week. The terms will, however, only apply to those unions that reject the Haddington Road agreement.
Just in case there was any doubt about the Government’s determination to follow through on that Bill, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn noted that while teachers were perfectly free to reject what was on offer, the alternative saving measures were set down in the legislation. The unfortunate reality is that the financial crisis is not over. The economy may have begun to recover. But there is an annual gap of €12 billion between State income and expenditure. It must be closed.
