PAY emerged as the key issue at SIPTU's Dublin regional conference for its members in the public sector at the weekend.
The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, was heckled over nurses pay when he addressed the conference on Saturday. Management in semi State companies like CIE and Aer Lingus also came under sustained attack from delegates
Yesterday an emergency motion was passed calling on the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications to instruct CIE to pay the latest phase of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work to its 10,700 employees.
SIPTU represents well over half of CIE employees and is by far the biggest union in the public sector. Its importance can be seen by the fact that two Ministers addressed its main session on Saturday. The Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, outlined progress under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work in tackling equality issues in the workplace.
Mr Quinn warned of the dangers of uncontrolled growth in public sector pay. He said even if ongoing negotiations with nurses, teachers and clerical civil servants were left out of the account, the public sector pay and pensions bill would rise by over 5 per cent next year. He condemned the way some public sector unions had used the threat of industrial action to pursue claims.
"In order to strike a balance between the aspirations of those groups and the overall imperative of pay moderation, the resultant settlements have given rise to increased costs, by way of drift, beyond the period of the PCW itself," he said. "The Government will expect full credit for such costs in the current negotiations for a new national programme."
The demand for public sector pay rises had to be balanced against calls for tax cuts. People would have to realise that the advent of EMU and the end of the current structural funds programme after 1999 placed additional burdens on the Exchequer.
If the economy was "in better shape than it has ever been, it is due in no small part to the consensus approach of recent years", he concluded.
However, there was little sign of consensus from delegates. One of Mr Quinn's hecklers, Ms Marnie Holboro, said they would have preferred to have a nurse address the conference than a Minister who was making it clear there was no more money for nurses and other public sector workers.
Mr Noel Pocock of the SIPTU executive said there was lip service in companies like CIE and Aer Lingus to partnership and participation but the reality was substantially different. Shop stewards were being disempowered and managements were cherry picking what they wanted from agreements.
The SIPTU general secretary, Mr Billy Attley, warned the Government and other employers: "If they hope to drive a wedge between public and private sector workers, they will fail in that task." Despite claims to the contrary, public and private sector pay had risen at about the same rate during the last three agreements.
If the overall cost of public sector pay had risen more rapidly, it was because of increased numbers and an increasing public demand for services. People could not have it both ways, he said. "The Government's objective of cutting tax should not be on the backs of public sector workers."
A SIPTU regional secretary, Mr Brendan Hayes, criticised what he called "the sleaze factor" attached to pay practices for senior managers in the public sector, when workers were suffering cutbacks.