Nurses would lose more than €5,000 under the proposed new Croke Park agreement according to figures produced by actuaries working for frontline public service unions.
The figures also suggested that a Senator on a salary of €65,621 would lose only €621 or just under 1 per cent of gross earnings under the agreement.
The figures, drawn up for the 24/7 alliance of unions by consulting actuaries, Joseph G Byrne and Sons, included in their calculation of losses the cost of staff in the public service having to work additional hours under the provisions of the proposed agreement.
The report, published yesterday, said for nurses the basic working week would increase by 1.5 hours under the new deal. This would reduce the hourly rate of pay and had implications for the calculation of overtime and additional allowances.
Twilight payments abolished
The report said increments would also be frozen for a period, Sunday premium payment reduced and twilight payments abolished under the proposals.
The report said the gross loss per annum for a staff nurse on a pre-agreement salary of €49,501, allowing for the additional hours and freeze in increments, would be €5,662, a reduction of 11.4 per cent.
The actuarial report said psychiatric nurses, on a pre-agreement salary of €48,860, would experience a gross loss of €5,441 taking account of additional hours and the freeze in increments.
The report said a garda on a pre-agreement salary of €54,954 would lose €2,797, or just over 5 per cent under the proposed agreement. For a Garda sergeant on a current salary of €62,123, the report said there would be losses of €2,248.
It said a Garda inspector on €68,746 would lose just over €2,400 or some 3.5 per cent under the agreement.
A care assistant could lose €3,811 and a paramedic a total of €3,560 under the deal, while a firefighter on a pre-agreement salary of €60,575 would lose €1,836, representing a reduction of 3 per cent.
Senators
The report also said that a Senator on a gross salary of €65,621 would lose just 0.9 per cent or €621 under the provisions of the proposed Croke Park agreement.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore welcomed the decision of the Siptu executive council to back the deal, saying its assessment of the agreement was “very fair and very realistic”.
“It is now a matter of the members of Siptu and of other unions to look at the agreement and to make up their own minds and to cast their votes on it,” he said after arriving in Atlanta at the start of a week-long trip to the United States to mark the St Patrick’s Day celebration.
