THE State's largest trade union, SIPTU, has drastically curbed the amounts its executive committee members can claim in expenses. In recent years some members of the executive are understood to have claimed amounts between £10,000 and £20,000.
Under the new system the 35 members of the executive will receive a stipend of £4,000 a year, of which £1,200 will be tax free. This will be to cover day to day, out of pocket expenses involved in helping members. These include postage, phone calls and the cost of attending local meetings and social functions. Members of the union's eight regional executives will receive a stipend of £500, which will be tax free.
In addition, members of the national or regional executives, along with other union activists, will have to provide full documentation and receipts when they incur additional expenses on authorised union business. Travel expenses will be paid on the basis of public transport fares. Mileage, at 25p per mile, will only be paid where public transport is unavailable.
A SIPTU spokesman said yesterday that reports of executive members receiving £20,000 a year or more in expenses were exaggerated. However, the union did not say what the highest expenses claims paid out had cost. He also pointed out that the union had been created from a merger of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union and the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland. During the amalgamation period some executive members had to attend very large numbers of meetings.
Different scales of expenses and allowances within the old. ITGWU and FWUI had also complicated the situation, he said. Under the system adopted by the newly elected national executive, all of these expenses were now being standardised.
During the transition period, SIPTU received substantial financial assistance from the State towards the cost of the merger. In total, payments of £1.2 million were approved from the Exchequer under legislation to promote trade union rationalisation. Just under £700,000 was paid out, of which £180,000 was towards the cost of balloting members of the ITGWU and FWUI on the amalgamation proposals.
The move to curb expenses is part of an overall SIPTU strategy for reducing running costs.