Public sector pay talks break up without firm date for resumption

Talks between the Government and union representatives aimed at producing a new public sector pay deal are not expected to resume until the new year after Tuesday’s session at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) failed to produce the hoped-for breakthrough.

There had been some hope expressed before Tuesday’s session that the two sides might find the basis for pushing on and conclude an agreement but the day’s talks ended without any substantial talks on the issue of pay itself having taken place yet.

“The Public Services Committee has made both the WRC and the employer side entirely aware that the union side remains available to continue the talks,” said Siptu’s John King after the talks had broken up. “In the meantime, we will hold a consultative meeting of all the committee affiliates tomorrow.”

Mr King said he was disappointed with the lack of progress and suggested there may have been an issue as to whether the Government’s negotiators — senior officials from the Department of Public Expenditure — had the authority required from the Minister to conclude a deal had the two sides reached that point.

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“I don’t think the management side brought the impetus and urgency that we hoped they would, though. We certainly felt enough progress could be made on the issues to enable the conversation to start to focus on pay-related matters but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

“We have made it absolutely clear, though, that whenever the WRC seeks to reconvene the two sides, we will be available to attend,” he said.

[ Increases in line with inflation remain key priority for unions ]

Overall, some progress on other, non-pay, issues, including the mechanisms required to resolve more local disputes, something that had been the subject of unsuccessful preliminary talks over the summer, is understood to have been made while other issues also remain outstanding.

The hope previously had been that productive talks on pay might have provided the momentum required for the two sides to move towards an agreement before the Christmas break.

The Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which includes representatives of all 19 unions with members who will be affected by any agreement, will meet on Wednesday morning to be briefed and consider the situation.

Fórsa’s Kevin Callinan who leads a union side team of four that includes Mr King, Phil Ní Sheaghdha of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and John Boyle of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, said at the weekend he hoped a deal could be done in the early part of this week but warned that if it was not, “then my feeling would be that public servants will either be voting in the new year on a proposed agreement with a pay element that is fair or on a campaign of industrial action intended to produce a fair outcome”.

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