THE LEADERS of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) and of the public sector workers' union, Impact, had the highest salaries of trade unions surveyed by The Irish Times.
Seven out of the 16 trade unions contacted refused to disclose the pay levels of their general secretaries.
John Carr of the INTO has a salary of €172,000 while Peter McLoone of Impact has a salary of €171,313. Impact salaries are linked to public sector grades and Mr McLoone’s salary is the equivalent of that of the Cork County Manager.
The INTO has 35,000 members. Impact has 65,000 members, about half of whom are in the health sector, and a third in local government.
The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, has a salary of €137,400. He earns an additional €27,700 from his work as a director of the Central Bank and as a Governor of the Irish Times trust. This work is done in his personal capacity, a spokesman said.
The general secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland, John White, has a salary of €144,000 while the general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, Peter MacMenamin, is paid according to a grade system linked to Civil Service grades that sets his salary at between €131,748 and €150,712. The unions have 18,400 and 15,000 members respectively.
The three national executive officers of the State’s largest union, Siptu, each earned €124,895 in 2008. They are general president Jack O’Connor, vice-president Brendan Hayes, and general secretary Joe O’Flynn. The union has about 215,000 members.
The general secretary of the Civil and Public Services Union, Blair Horan, said he had a salary of “about €120,000”. The union has 14,000 members.
Seven trade unions did not disclose the salary levels of their general secretaries. These were: the Communications Workers’ Union (Steve Fitzpatrick); Mandate (John Douglas); the Irish Bank Officials’ Association (Larry Broderick); the TEEU (Owen Wills); the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (Liam Doran); the Public Service Executive Union (Tom Geraghty); and the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (Dave Thomas).
The website of the Certification Officer in the UK shows that the salary of the IBOA general secretary, Mr Broderick, was €133,518 last year.
The annual return for the union available on the website says he also benefited from pension contributions of €46,731, and car, bonus and VHI benefits that totalled a further €19,957. His total package was €200,206, according to the document. The IBOA has 21,776 members.
Ibec, the employers’ organisation, would not disclose the salary level of its director general Danny McCoy.