Public pay dispute: Government holds the line

The Government is facing a serious challenge to its public service pay policy with rank-and-file gardaí and second-level teachers now scheduled to stage several days of strikes in November.

It seems prepared to offer the groups new processes to deal with pay grievances in the future, and significant changes to industrial relations procedures, but is holding its line that raises will not happen outside the terms of the Lansdowne Road public service pay deal.

The ASTI is to withdraw from supervision and substitution duties on November 7th, a move that could see hundreds of schools close. And things may yet get worse.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) is to consider a campaign of industrial action at a special delegate conference in Athlone today.

Deal rejected

Both the ASTI and the

Garda Representative Association

(GRA) have rejected the Lansdowne Road terms.

The ASTI is unhappy at pay rates for recently-qualified teachers and penalties imposed on members for “repudiating” the Lansdowne Road deal. The GRA’s issues are pay and conditions and the lack of mechanisms for dealing with industrial relations in the force.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has asked her officials to start work on changing legislation to allow gardaí access to the Labour Court and the Workplace Relations Commission.

Yesterday her spokesman said she had told the GRA and AGSI she was committed to finding a solution that addressed the concerns of gardaí “while respecting broader public pay policy”.

Her colleague, Minister for Education Richard Bruton, has acknowledged publicly that a pay gap of about €1,800 would remain for newly-qualified teachers compared to the pay of their most established colleagues even if increases accepted by other unions were taken into account.

Mr Bruton invited the ASTI to new talks. However, the union is seeking an unconditional process that could see it secure a deal without having to sign up to the Lansdowne Road accord.

Ministers will have taken heed of the comments of Patricia King, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, at the weekend. She said any settlement the Government reached with the ASTI "would have to be applied to all other public servants", as they had the same employer.

Many observers have pointed out that other public service groups will not accept any argument that teachers or gardaí – or anyone else – represent a “special case”.

The Government’s message seems to be that people who want money above levels set out in the Lansdowne Road deal will have to wait until 2018, when it expires.