THE Government is preparing to renegotiate last year’s controversial national wage deal.
That deal, hammered out by employers and unions last September, recommended pay increases of a total of 6% over 21 months.
The Government and employers have said it is no longer active, even though a number of employers have paid the 2.5% first phase. However unions, most notably SIPTU, have balloted for strike action against employers who have not paid it and are intent on action if an alternative is not agreed.
It has emerged that, in a letter to Labour Court chairman Kevin Duffy, the secretary general of the Taoiseach’s office, Dermot McCarthy, said the private sector element of the national wage deal will be addressed as part of the current economic recovery talks.
Mr McCarthy, as chairman of the National Implementation Body, wrote to the Labour Court chairman following the court’s recommendation that Bord Gáis should be paid the first phase of last September’s deal. In making the recommendation for the payment of the 2.5% increase, the court did say that the implementation of the agreement should be a matter for the social partners who agreed it. However, it decided to back a claim for payment because it said Bord Gáis was highly profitable and was certainly not in a position to claim inability to pay.
In the letter to Mr Foley, which was secured by Industrial Relations News, Dermot McCarthy writes that the NIB has "noted the issues raised in the court’s recommendation" in relation to the status of last September’s agreement.
"At present, a process of engagement with the social partners at national level is taking place aimed at exploring the scope for reaching an agreement on an integrated national response to the current economic crisis," he said. "Within this wider process it is intended to address pay matters, including the application of the private sector pay provisions of the Transitional Agreement and future arrangements. Perhaps the Court would bear this in mind in its approach."
Meanwhile, the Government was yesterday attacked by opposition leaders for doing little to prevent next Tuesday’s 24-hour strike by public sector workers.
Fine Gael questioned what arrangements were being put in place to ensure emergency services were maintained on the day, while Labour accused the Government of making no effort to avert the strike, saying they were "throwing in the towel".
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said the Government did not believe the strike would be constructive.
Meanwhile, Central Statistics Office (CSO) income and living standards figures for 2008 released yesterday showed a rise in average household incomes and a decline in consistent poverty. Nevertheless there were also signs of workers’ growing financial stress.
For the first time, the 2008 survey included questions on arrears.
Overall, 20.3% of households indicated they were in arrears, with 7.7% in arrears of two or more types. it was found that households on lower incomes were more likely to report arrears on mortgage, rent or utility bills while those on higher incomes were more likely to have arrears on credit cards and overdrafts.
Average gross household income was found to have risen to €60,581 per year in 2008, an increase of 1.3% since 2007.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, November 20, 2009
