Call to restore rates for lower paid civil servants

The union representing lower-paid civil servants has warned the Government it has to start restoring pay rates to pre-austerity levels.

And the priority must be for those earning less than €35,000 a year, the Civil, Public and Services Unions is insisting. Its general secretary, Eoin Ronayne, told the union’s Annual Delegate Conference that the Central Statistics Office recently reported a fall of just 0.4% in private sector average weekly earnings between 2009 and 2013.

Public sector earnings, meanwhile, had fallen by 12%, including the pension levy, over the same period. Lower paid civil servants had seen their take-home pay cut by about 18%, he said.