THE NATIONAL executive council of Siptu, the country’s largest union, has said that on balance the proposed new public service pay and reform deal should be accepted by members.
However, it said the deal, negotiated with Government officials in Croke Park a fortnight ago, would benefit from greater clarification in a number of respects.
Siptu president Jack O’Connor last night said the union’s analysis of the deal was that it represented “the best of the options”.
However, he said he did not know if it would be accepted by members in the forthcoming ballot. Siptu is to undertake a widespread consultation process in advance of the ballot which is to conclude at the end of May.
Mr O’Connor said the union’s national executive council had decided to accept the deal by “a good majority”, but that it had not been unanimous.
In a statement last night, Siptu’s national executive council said the realistic choice was between continuing industrial action or pursuing its objective through acceptance of the proposals in the deal as a medium-term strategy.
“Our public services are facing restructuring one way or the other. The question is, in whose interests? Will the process serve the interests of the citizens in a manner compatible with the rights of public service workers or will it be determined by the interests of people who want to make a profit out of providing them. Unquestionably, it is better for our members to be in a position to influence and shape the process.
“The proposals before us must be considered in the context of what is actually in them and what is not in them. They would undoubtedly benefit from greater clarification in a number of respects. However, they offer security on jobs, pay and pensions and provide a framework for recovering lost ground, as well as affording union members equal influence in the restructuring process. Accordingly, we believe the balance of advantage rests with acceptance,” it said.
Siptu’s national executive council said the deal provided security against compulsory redundancies and set out “rigorous mechanisms for controlling outsourcing with full trade union engagement”. The possible outsourcing of public service work was one of Siptu’s main concerns when it entered the talks.
On pay, the union said it was simplistic to argue that there would be no further cuts, irrespective of whether an agreement was reached with the Government. It said this argument ignored the imperative to cut the deficit by €3 billion next year and again in 2012.
It said that the clause in the deal setting out how savings generated by reform could be used to reinstate original pay scales “would benefit from clarification, affording a much greater degree of certainty”.
The statement said there had been much media commentary on the clause in the deal that makes its implementation subject to no currently unforseen budgetary deterioration. However, it said that the significance of this provision had been “greatly overstated because at the end of the day if they opt out it would be open to us to renew and escalate the industrial campaign”.
It said theproposals represented the very best that could be achieved through negotiation and that nothing had been “left behind at the table”.
However, it said it was impossible to say definitively whether or not “we could do better”.