Need for Government engagement on review of pay agreement, says Siptu

Siptu’s John King said on Tuesday that he expects to get a response from Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath within the next 10 days to a union letter intended to trigger a review of the current public sector pay agreement.

Mr King said that he wrote to the Workplace Relations Commission two weeks ago seeking to invoke a clause in the agreement allowing for a review on the basis of the changed landscape with regard to inflation and cost of living.

He said that Siptu wanted the unions involved in the agreement to hold talks with Government on the pay aspect of the deal which essentially provided for two annual increases of one 1 per cent each.

Siptu, which represents some 60,000 members whose incomes are affected by the deal, does not have a position on what scale of pay rise might be appropriate now. But the Government should participate in a review and start the process by setting out its position on the current economic situation to the unions, he said.

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The public services committee of the Ictu is due to meet on Friday, April 8th, and Mr King said that the unions “should have a response” from Mr McGrath by then.

Meanwhile, Mr King said that the expectation on the union side is that the Government will agree to the implementation of the recommendations of Independent Body Examining Additional Working Hours delivered in January.

The body, which was chaired by Kieran Mulvey, recommended that working hours be restored to pre-Haddington Road Agreement levels from July.

The cost of eliminating additional, unpaid working hours introduced for staff across the public service as part of austerity measures nearly a decade ago will be €645 million a year, the Department of Public Expenditure has forecast. It said this is the equivalent of 10,952 additional full-time employees.

“We understand . . . the Government is favourably disposed to accepting the hours’ body report,” said Mr King. “The outcome of that was to suggest that it should be implementable from the 1st of July. So we would hope that they’ll take it to the Cabinet shortly and go about doing that. Again it [the review process] is an integral piece of the agreement.”

Neglect of sector

Earlier, Mr King told the union’s biennial conference in Sligo that members within the community sector will begin a national campaign of protest, industrial and strike action aimed at ending “the neglect of this sector by the State”. The campaign is to begin with a national protest in Dublin on April 11th.

“The continued neglect . . . of the workers in this sector by the State and the establishment is shameful,” he said with regard to workers, many of whom provide training and other services to the unemployed.

“Community and section 39 agency workers provide essential public services, on behalf of the State, to some of the most vulnerable and marginalised citizens and communities.

“The denial of funding for improvements in pay and conditions of employment is unacceptable. The move to privatise and commercialise some of these services will have profound negative consequences for our society and the citizens and communities that rely on them.”