Passport office workers are to vote on a deal to clear the massive backlog of unprocessed applications after crisis talks between unions and Government officials finished today.

DISCUSSIONS at the Labour Relations Commission on how to address the 61,000-backlog in passport applications will resume this morning after almost 10 hours of negotiations failed to break the deadlock last night.

THE union representing low-paid workers in the public service has become the first to reject the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform.

The Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) has recommended rejection of the public sector pay and reform deal.

The Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) is blaming the Department of Foreign Affairs and Passport Office management for the chaos at the Dublin office.

The backlog of 50,000 passport applications will take at least a month to clear, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Passport services could be shifted to another department or even outsourced to private operators as the applications backlog smashed the 50,000 barrier, top Government officials warned today.

Around 20,000 benefits cheques will be delayed next week as a result of industrial action, welfare chiefs warned today.

TELEPHONES in all the Government departments went unanswered yesterday afternoon as public service unions ratcheted up their industrial action in protest at the pay cuts introduced in the last budget.

WITH 250,000 public sector workers now on a nationwide work-to-rule over the pay cuts announced in the December Budget, the union representing low-paid civil servants is to escalate its protest through more radical, unannounced action designed to cause greatest disruption to management.

SIPTU and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Union (INMO) have served a strike notice on the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin which could effectively close the hospital down.

THERE was a reluctant acceptance among many public service workers picketing in Cork that their income is going to drop again after the budget – but they remain adamant in their desire to see the pain shared by those in the high-income brackets.

MORE than 60,000 teachers are set to take industrial action in the coming weeks after ballots of their three unions all resulted in backing of the move in protest at the Government’s handling of the economic crisis.

AFTER successfully disrupting Government agencies and departments yesterday, lower paid civil servants are to begin a campaign of locally based work protests on March 9.

THE first strike in protest at the Government’s economic recovery strategy will today see 13,000 civil servants close dole and passport offices across the country and severely hamper most government departments.

PUBLIC sector workers were last night warned the tax on their pensions would be in place for a “long time to come” as Finance Minister Brian Lenihan pushed the move through the Dáil.

Hundreds of students and public servants will protest outside the Dáil today.

IF YOU are looking for a 100% recession-proof job, then you might want to consider upcoming openings at the local dole office.

A LARGE percentage of public sector workers will accept an almost year-long pay pause in a new national wage agreement as long as they are adequately compensated when the freeze ends.

SINN Féin claims it is defending the very constitution they refuse to acknowledge from the contents of the Lisbon Treaty.

THE bulk of lower ranking public sector workers will today be told they are to get little or no pay increases through benchmarking in what will spark threats of strike action and could spell the end of participation in the benchmarking process.

WHY doesn’t the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) admit that the so-called partnership deals are dead, at least in their current form?

THE biggest civil service union in the country yesterday threatened to block Government decentralisation plans because of a promotions row.

A THREAT to escalate the dispute involving 262 clerical workers at Department of Agriculture offices was made at the weekend.