DEPARTMENT OF Finance officials have held a plenary meeting with unions representing about 300,000 public sector staff on the issue of reform and modernisation.
However, union sources said yesterday that while business could be done in some areas, there was unlikely to be any real progress until there was certainty on the Government’s position in relation to public sector pay.
Government Ministers have hinted strongly in recent weeks that cuts in the current €20 billion public sector pay and pension bill could be on the agenda for the budget in December.
Senior union sources said last night that if and when the Government set out the level of savings it wanted to make on payroll costs, then they would look to see if similar amounts could be achieved without cutting pay.
The State’s largest public sector union Impact is balloting 55,000 members for a mandate for strike action in the event of the Government introducing pay cuts.
The Government has signalled that public service reform is one of its key priorities and talks have been under way in various sectors such as the Civil Service, local authorities, health and education.
The Department of Finance told trade unions a fortnight ago that the Government wanted to introduce new arrangements to allow it to redeploy staff between Civil Service departments and between the Civil Service and non-commercial State bodies where necessary.
The department’s document said that the Government had divided the country into 14 geographic regions within which staff could be moved
Trade union sources said they believed that they could do business with the Government on the reform plans for the Civil Service, State agencies and local authorities.
However, significant difficulties remain in the health service where unions are unhappy with proposals put forward by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and are to put forward their own document.
The HSE has told trade unions that as part of any new arrangements to redeploy staff, it will initially seek volunteers but that compulsory transfers may be necessary if there are insufficient expressions of interest.
Under HSE proposals, staff could be redeployed up to 60km from their current location.