THE GOVERNMENT is facing an increasing prospect of industrial relations unrest in the weeks ahead over spending cuts, budgetary strategy and proposed reductions in public sector pay that have been hinted at by Ministers.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) is seeking to bring tens of thousands of workers from both the public and private sectors on to the streets of Dublin and six other locations on Friday, November 6th, in a bid to influence the Government’s decisions in the forthcoming budget.
Ictu is also to launch a major advocacy campaign for its 10-point plan on dealing with the economic crisis in a fairer way.
Sources said the budget for the Ictu initiative could be about €1.3 million. Ictu disagrees with Government plans to cut public spending by €3-€ 4 billion this year and believes that the problems in the public finances should be tackled over a longer period.
The move comes as the prospect of a clash between the Government and unions over public sector pay appears to be increasing.
Siptu president Jack O’Connor said that in the absence of an alternative national agreement, he would not stop members of his union in the health sector taking industrial action in pursuit of a 3.5 per cent increase. This rise was due under the national pay deal reached a year ago, which the Government has effectively frozen.
He said there was no new national agreement in place and he had no basis to tell members not to proceed with action.
“In fact the opposite is the case. I have a declared position by the Minister for Finance that amounts to nothing other that a statement to the effect that the burden of the adjustment for 2010 will be borne exclusively by working people and the less well-off. So the gloves are off,” he said.
However, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said the money was not there to pay the 3.5 per cent increase to health workers. She said that since the pay deal was reached, the financial and economic situation had changed considerably.
The country’s largest public sector union, Impact, is balloting 55,000 members for a mandate for strike action in the event of the Government introducing pay cuts.
Last night in Cork more than 1,000 frontline public sector workers, including gardaí, nurses and prison officers, attended a second regional meeting of the 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance, aimed at protesting against cuts in allowances and payments proposed in the McCarthy report. PDforra, the body representing Defence Forces personnel, said it had been ordered to break off contact with this alliance.
Sources said that the representative body had been “reminded” by Department of Defence and senior military figures of the provisions of the Defence Act.
Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea said PDforra had to operate within the “already agreed processes”.
Ictu anxious day of protest will also involve private sector: page 4