PSEU members vote in favour of partnership deal

The union that represents executive grades in the public service has voted in favour of accepting the new social partnership deal.

The Public Service Executive Union said today that its 10,000 members had voted "strongly" in favour of the Towards 2016 agreement.

The deal includes pay rises totalling 10% over 27 months for both public-sector and private-sector workers.

Several trade unionists have been highly critical of the deal on a number of fronts, including the fact that it effectively imposes a pay freeze on public-sector workers, who will not get their first pay increase until December.

However, the PSEU hit out at these critics today, saying they had failed to put forward any alternative "which is capable of ensuring that the nation's hard-won prosperity is maintained and that enables citizens to input directly into the economic and social policy decisions that affect their daily lives".