TRADE UNIONS last night remained hopeful that a deal on reducing the public sector pay bill for next year could be reached.
Government sources, however, continued to be sceptical of the actual levels of savings proposed that a compulsory unpaid leave arrangement for State employees would realise.
Separately, it is understood that health service management has signalled that intensive planning and significant change would have to be introduced across a range of areas if the proposals put forward by the trade unions in this sector were to be implemented successfully.
As part of a plan to avoid across- the-board cuts in pay levels, public sector unions have suggested that, as a temporary measure next year, civil and public servants should take between 10 and 14 unpaid leave days.
If there is no agreement on a deal between unions and the Government on how to produce €1.3 billion in savings for next year, civil and public servants are scheduled to stage a further 24-hour stoppage on Thursday. This would again close schools and seriously disrupt health and other public services.
The trade unions have estimated that the plan for unpaid leave would generate about €800 million in savings next year.
However, sources close to the Government last night estimated that when staff who, for operational and service reasons, could not take such unpaid leave were taken into account, the level of savings that would be generated would be in the region of €300 million.
This suggestion has been strongly disputed by senior union sources.
Trade union leaders and top health service officials, including the secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, and the HSE’s director of human resources Seán McGrath, spent several hours on Sunday night and throughout yesterday testing the unpaid leave proposal in the health service.
This is the area in which the largest number of staff in the public service are employed.
However, it is understood that health service management signalled in the talks that if the plan were to be put in place, it would require a fundamental change to the way that work was carried was carried out.
This would include provision for redeploying staff, service reconfiguration, as well as alterations to existing reporting relationships and staffing ratios.
Sources said that in effect, management said that the union plan needed to be more ambitious.
Under the unions’ proposal the temporary unpaid leave arrangement – which could reduce earnings by 2 per cent for every five days taken – would be rescinded in future years as savings generated by means of an overall transformation programme in the public service came on stream.
This transformation programme would seek to produce significant savings by means of job reductions, new work practices and improved productivity.
In the absence of any deal, the Government is expected to announce cuts in public sector pay in the Budget next week.