The Civil and Public Service Union is to press ahead with plans to seek a "substantial" pay rise through the benchmarking process, despite its members' rejection by three to one of the pay review in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
In contrast to the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, the CPSU is planning a twin-track strategy to secure pay increases in excess of those in the PPF. Yesterday members of the largest civil service union voted by three to one to reject the 2 per cent pay increase and 1 per cent lump sum offered by the Government and other employers as compensation for inflation. The only groups within the CPSU to accept the PPF review were staff who transferred to Eircom and Coillte. All 12,000 other members will be balloted for strike action.
Due to the foot-and-mouth crisis, the union will not begin its strike ballot before the next executive meeting on March 29th. Some 1,500 members of the CPSU work in the Department of Agriculture. CPSU general secretary Mr Blair Horan said members were behaving responsibly. However he warned the crisis would only defer industrial action if the Department of Finance did not respond positively on pay.
The cost of childcare, high rents and "exclusion" of the low-paid from the housing market were the main factors in the ballot to reject the PPF review. Members were also angered at the large pay rises, worth between 15 and 33 per cent, awarded to senior civil servants.
Since 1988 senior civil servants received four pay reviews, compared with two for lower grades.