The Government could trigger a spate of “uncontrolled leap-frogging” pay claims among State employees if it agrees to special deals for particular groups, the country’s largest public service trade union has warned.
Peter Nolan, national secretary of Impact, said it would be "unacceptable" for any group to get higher pay awards than others in any extension to the Lansdowne Road agreement that may be negotiated in the weeks ahead.
In an address to Impact's local government division at a conference in Letterkenny, Mr Nolan said public servants faced the effects of financial emergency legislation "together, and we expect and deserve to get out of it together".
“The Government and its negotiators must resist the temptation to interpret the responsible majority of public servants, who abide by agreements and negotiate in good faith, as indifferent or weak,” he said.
“A large number of public service groups and professions – including many that earn far less than those who can routinely grab the headlines – could make a rational case for ‘special treatment’. So, if special favours are conceded to any group in the forthcoming talks, other claims will certainly emerge.”
The comments are being interpreted in industrial relations circles as a response to calls by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) last week for increases of 12-15 per cent to secure pay parity with therapy grades in the health service and to deal with staff recruitment and retention difficulties.
Garda precedent
Mr Nolan warned that any approach in the forthcoming talks “that favoured certain groups of workers over others” would be a repeat of a development last year when gardaí were awarded benefits exceeding those agreed under the Lansdowne Road deal.
“Worse, we could be back to a spiral of uncontrolled, leap-frogging pay claims, with accompanying industrial action. That is not sustainable for those who use and deliver our public services, or those who pay for them,” he said.
INMO general secretary Liam Doran said his union would "remain steadfast" in the forthcoming pay negotiations. He said everyone realised there were labour market realities in the nursing and midwifery area and these had to be addressed. He said the Government had urged nurses to pursue their claims through procedures and those procedures were about to get under way.
Mr Nolan told delegates that the forthcoming pay talks must result in an acceleration of public-service pay recovery. He said workers would not vote for an outcome that only “gives with one hand and takes away with another”.
He said workers’ expectations were realistic, but a talks outcome that lacked substance would not be accepted in union ballots.
“We know there are competing demands on the public purse; we’re making many of those demands ourselves. We know any agreement has to be sustainable – that’s in our interest too,” he said. “But it must also have substance if it is to win the support of those who make their living by serving the public.”
Impact has about 60,000 members across the public service, including more than 12,000 local authority staff.
