Siptu says it will resist any moves to change terms of public service pay deal

Any move by the Government to “recalibrate” the current public service pay deal will be resisted wholeheartedly, Siptu, the country’s largest union, has said.

Last week Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested to an Oireachtas committee that some money earmarked for pay rises for staff across the public service could instead be used to tackle the lower pay rates for newer entrants.

Mr Varadkar said many public service personnel would receive two small 1 per cent pay rises this year as well as an incremental increase as they moved up their scale . “Maybe by agreement we can recalibrate that in some way so that more of that goes to the new entrant public servants, those who were approved after 2011,” he said.

Highly-placed public service union sources said no such proposal had been tabled by the Government. They said any move to change elements of the deal, which was negotiated last year and came into effect in January, would have to involve a re-ballot of union members.

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Meanwhile Siptu support staff and healthcare assistant grades working in Our Lady of Lourdes and Louth County hospitals have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action, up to and including strike action, in a dispute concerning management's failure to address pay adjustments for former interns.

The union said the dispute centred around the implementation of a national agreement negotiated between the union and the HSE, and for the HSE to recognise previous service for interns working in support grades.