Nurses have become the latest public sector workers to ratchet up pressure on the Government with threats of industrial action if it imposes pay cuts.

One of the country’s top industrial relations mediators has been given less than a week to conclude talks with trade unions over pay cuts.

The Government has offered to open a second round of talks with unions despite warning the public sector that it would enforce pay cuts.

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said the Government will reflect on the decisions of unions on the proposed Croke Park II Agreement.

Top-ranking civil servants have rejected the proposed Croke Park II round of pay cuts.

The eight union executives which have urged their members reject the Croke Park II deal will meet officially for the first time next week to discuss a strategy to “protect existing pay rates and terms and conditions”.

The Irish Medical Organisation will begin its annual conference in Kerry this afternoon.

Public sector workers face being forced to accept a €1bn savings plan after the Government warned it needed majority backing from trade unions.

The minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, has confirmed that a document proposing €1bn worth of cuts to the public sector has been handed over to unions.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, has arrived at the talks aimed at securing an extension to the Croke Park Agreement - indicating a deal is imminent.

Public sector union leaders have said they are pessimistic about the prospect of a reaching a new agreement with the Government aimed at making a further €1bn in savings.

The General Secretary of the Civil and Public Services Union has said he is at a loss as to how further savings can be made at the lower end of the public sector.

A union chief is sounding a warning about the government's new redundancy scheme for the public sector.

MORE than 700 people have worked for no pay across the public sector in the past two years as part of the FÁS work placement programme.

The Civil and Public Services Union has voted unanimously in favour of industrial action if further pay cuts are inflicted on its members.

The General Secretary of the union that represents lower paid civil servants has said the Croke Park deal must be in place if the public service is to be re-organised.

Members of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) are to vote today on the recruitment of additional temporary staff at the passport office.

Efforts to find a resolution to the dispute at the Passport Office in Dublin will resume at the Labour Relations Commission this morning.

Talks aimed at easing the application backlog at the passport office will take place at the Labour Relations Commission this morning.

The Civil and Public Services Union has today become the first union to reject the Croke Park deal on pay and reform in the public sector.

IT’S surprising that a scholar of early 20th century Irish history such as Foreign Minster Micheál Martin has not learnt the lesson of Easter 1916 – when an opponent is defeated, savour your victory, rather than try to humiliate them.

There is no end in sight for those trying to get a passport at the office on Molesworth Street in Dublin.

The head of the passport office will today face questions regarding the ongoing industrial dispute that left 40,000 people awaiting travel documents.

A security alert which turned out to be a false alarm wreaked further havoc on Dublin’s passport office today as a contentious work-to-rule left 40,000 people awaiting travel documents.

Public servants are to escalate their protest against pay cuts after low-paid civil servants last night voted in favour of strike action.

The leader of the CPSU says widespread industrial action in the Public Service will get worse before it gets better.

PUBLIC sector workers have accused the Government of “emotional blackmail” over claims that seriously ill patients and the Irish economy will suffer as a direct result of wide-scale industrial action.

A group of trade unions joined forces today in a final bid to convince workers the Lisbon Treaty was essential for their rights.

A new process to fast-track jobseekers' payments is set to be introduced in around one-third of social welfare offices around the country.

Certain social welfare recipients are being affected by yesterday's industrial action by members of the Civil and Public Services Union.

Thousands of lower-paid Government employees will stage a walk-out today as they hold their first one-day stoppage in the deepening row over the controversial pension levy.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is holding a meeting today to discuss a co-ordinated response to the controversial pension levy being imposed on all public servants.

LOW-PAID civil servants have become the first to propose strike action over the Government’s decision to introduce a pensions levy across the public service.

EIGHT of the country’s largest trade unions have voted overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the new national wage agreement.

STAFF in social welfare offices are struggling to cope with the increased rate of unemployment, leaving dole claimants waiting 12 weeks to have their claims processed.

SIPTU has sought an immediate meeting with Aer Lingus management at which it wants assurances the jobs of more than 1,300 of its members will not be outsourced.

LAST Friday John McGuinness, a Department of Enterprise junior minister made what was by the conservative and often head-in-the-sand nature of our public discourse, a radical speech.

THE Government has insisted that a junior minister who launched a stinging attack on the public service sector was speaking in a personal capacity.

“IT’S like groundhog week,” was the quip of one informed source as the social partners trudged into Government Buildings yet again.

THOUSANDS of striking Communications Workers Union (CWU) members will be supported by two other An Post unions as they march on Government buildings today.

CHARITIES last night warned of hampered fundraising efforts if postal services are not restored.

The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association has said the current dispute at the Department of Agriculture should be resolved under mechanisms contained in the Sustaining Progress partnership deal.

FARM families are suffering hardship because of the effects of the month-old dispute involving staff in local offices of the Department of Agriculture and Food.