People on low pay must be helped by future national pay deals to buy their own homes, according to a trade union leader.
The CPSU, which represents 13,000 clerical staff in the civil and public service, wants pay increases under any future national agreement weighted in favour of low- to middle-income earners so they can have some aspirations towards home ownership in the current housing boom.
Mr Blair Horan, general secretary, speaking at the CPSU annual delegate conference in Killarney yesterday, said that this could best be achieved by agreeing in advance a set percentage of public service payroll costs which could then be distributed as flat-rate cash increases.
That would avoid inflationary pay growth which would be critical in advance of EMU entry. Mr Horan said that over the last 10 years the huge growth in GDP had not been shared out equitably. Since 1987, he said, house prices had risen by 120 per cent, GDP by 120 per cent, and the salary of top civil servants by 120 per cent. However, the salary of a clerical officer had risen by only 56 per cent.
He urged the Government to provide additional mortgage tax relief for first-time buyers below set income levels in the next Budget.
The 900,000 people in the 15to-30 age bracket were a good indicator of the importance that house prices would assume in the wage bargaining arena, said Mr Horan.
The conference passed two emergency motions deploring Telecom Eireann for recommending last week that two basic pay rises of 4.75 per cent be paid only after acceptance of the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP)
The ESOP provides that, in return for 14.9 per cent of the company, workers will have to agree radical change for 5 per cent of the shares while the remaining 9.9 per cent will be funded by employee pension contributions of 5.3 per cent, the elimination of bonuses and additional loans.
Mr Derek Mullen, assistant general secretary, said he would seek the withdrawal of the company demand, and promised CPSU members a "free and independent vote" on the ESOP deal. Meanwhile, union members are to vote on a comprehensive promotion package, which will allow mainly women job-sharers equal access to promotional posts as their full-time colleagues.
This arises from a recent European Court of Justice ruling which credits job-sharers with the same full-year service as their predominantly male full-time colleagues.
The ruling caused concern in public service unions as it adversely affected the promotional prospects of full-time workers. The CPSU, which agreed 3,200 promotions last year, has secured an additional 650 promotions to accommodate the ruling, offset by payroll savings down the line.