Public sector largesse is still going strong

EAMON GILMORE was very quick to jump to the aide of the public sector and its Croke Park agreement “get out of jail card” when an outgoing senior employee of the European Central Bank (ECB) had the temerity to suggest that Irish public sector pay levels should be tackled.

Juergen Stark, who recently resigned from the ECB because of some of its policies, went on to suggest that both the Irish and Greek public sectors were paid considerably more than their European counterparts, particularly at the senior most levels. He was correct in that suggestion, with Irish public sector pay levels being matched with one of the best, if not the best, public sector pensions in the world.

Tying politicians’ pay to certain grades within the public sector was a stroke of genius.

The monies paid to the outgoing general-secretary of the Taoiseach’s office are a fine example of the largesse our senior public sector employees bestow upon themselves and their friends. Recent reports of well rewarded contracts being awarded to ex-HSE employees without going through normal tendering processes and apparently agreed by both unions and employers are just another case of public sector largesse.

It is true to say that there are thousands of public sector employees on low pay, and pensions are consequently a lot lower.

However, they do still have, at least until the end of February the opportunity to get a lump sum of one-and-a-half-times their salary, tax-free. The levies imposed in recent years on public sector employees also affect those on lower pay disproportionately.

Of course, the senior guys managed to have themselves also excluded from some of hardships imposed by the levies.

There are many similarities in the private sector, specifically at the upper levels. Senior employees in the banking sector continue to enjoy very high levels of remuneration.

And those who were persuaded to move on were richly rewarded for doing so. However, lower level employees in the private sector were and are not so lucky.

The chances of those on the dole queues getting a job in Ireland in the short and probably in the medium term are close to negligible, particularly those who are the wrong side of 40.

Many have left their jobs with little more than statutory redundancy and face a life of penury. Public sector employees, even at the lowest levels, have some security. But something that is far more pernicious is that some companies which have taken the opportunity to rid themselves of higher paid and long-serving older employees to bring in new and younger employees on far lower pay scales.

In some instances, contracts are effectively torn up and the employee bullied into accepting the new status quo as their salaries are cut disproportionately in an effort to persuade them to leave.

If the employee reacts, he or she is labelled a troublemaker and ostracised. Seeking legal advice is tantamount to a declaration of war.

For those people, the issue is twofold. Firstly, they recognise that instead of being valuable employees, they are readily expendable.

Secondly, they will enter the final period of their lives without the means to maintain even a modicum of their former lifestyles.

People being treated like this should be protected, but those in the worker protection business have climbed in to bed with the enemy in hope of some of the largesse rubbing off.

Government developing work schemes will only exacerbate the problem. It will create as many problems as it will solve. In the meantime, those who are being asked to save the country are being squeezed from all directions.