THE Minister for Finance and public sector union leaders were embroiled in open confrontation over pay last night against the backdrop of widespread industrial unrest among civil servants, teachers and nurses.
The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn - in Verona to attend an informal meeting of EU finance ministers - issued a statement warning that public servants must face up to their responsibilities under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
Threats of industrial action or attempts to go beyond the pay provisions of the agreement would not be countenanced by the Government. He described the expectations of some public sector workers as unrealistically high.
However, the general secretary of the Civil and Public Service Union, Mr John O'Dowd, described the statement as an attack on low-paid civil servants. "This Government has presented itself as a champion of the underprivileged and the low-paid, he said. "They should start the work in their own backyard, which includes low-paid civil servants.
"Tbe PCW promised great things to the low paid, in terms of taxation but the last budget was a disaster from the point of view of the low-paid." -
The CPSU has been operating an overtime ban within the civil service for the past month, causing growing disruption to services for the public. From Monday, it will include action at the Department of Education's exam centre in Athlone which could threaten the Junior and Leaving Cert exams.
The general secretary of the Teachers Union of Ireland, Mr Jim Dorney, also criticised the Minister's statement. His union has rejected the £66.7 million restructuring deal offered by the PCW and voted to take industrial action, if necessary, if a better deal cannot be negotiated.
He said it was "unhelpful at the commencement of difficult negotiations that someone should seek to pre-empt those negotiations".
"If the Government is seeking to implement the terms of the
PCW in an unduly restrictive way it will certainly prejudice the prospects of any, future national pay agreements.
Mr Quinn's message was intended as much for his fellow finance ministers in Verona to show them that Ireland was committed to budgetary discipline as for the trade unions. However, official sources said last night the Government was becoming increasingly worried at the prospect of the PCW collapsing.
While the secondary teachers have pulled back from immediate industrial action in favour of renewed pay talks with the Department of Education, there is now growing unease that the nurses may reject the £40 million pay deal on offer to them.
Officially the CPSU action is not in breach of the PCW because it is being taken in protest at the Government's decision to only fill one in three vacancies in the Civil Service. However it is an open secret that it is also fuelled by the frustration of members at - -lack of progress on pay talks.
Mr Quinn said last night jobs could be put at risk if the public service pay provisions of the PCW were exceeded.