THE largest civil service union will today slam commentators and politicians who, it will claim, are shamefully denigrating public sector workers.

A REVIEW of the country’s passport offices by the Labour Relations Commission has concluded that 20 clerical officers need to be hired as well as 50 temporary officers if the passport service is to properly meet public demand.

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.

THE uphill battle to save billions of euro through public service reform is starkly illustrated by lower paid civil servants’ refusal to even give up the half-hour they are given each week to bank their pay cheques.

A TOP adviser to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said there is “scope” to increase income-related taxes by about 3% for every worker in the country.

THE Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) is to re-ballot its 13,000 members on the terms of the Croke Park deal and said it is ending the action it has been holding in a number of Government departments.

Lower paid public servants have called a temporary halt to their work-to-rule action over budget cuts.

THE dispute between the Department of Foreign Affairs and workers in the country’s passport offices has re-ignited because staff are still being prevented from giving priority to customers with immediate travel plans.

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 executives of unions representing 107,000 public servants have rejected the public service pay and reform deal hammered out in Croke Park two weeks ago.

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

The General Secretary of the Civil Public and Services Union, Blair Horan, is predicting the deal on public sector pay and reform will be rejected outright by unions.

The General Secretary of the CPSU Blair Horan, which represents lower paid civil servants, has said his union is going to recommend the rejection of the deal to reform the public sector.

THE leader of the union representing lower-paid workers in the civil service has predicted his executive will this afternoon vote unanimously to recommend rejection of the new pay agreement to its 14,000 members.

WITH a second teaching union pushing for the public service pay deal to be voted down, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has warned it is the best that can be achieved through negotiation and full and disruptive strikes are the only alternative.

STRONG opposition has emerged among trade unionists to the public sector pay deal proposal which was endorsed by union leaders and government officials on Tuesday.

The overtime ban at the passport office has been lifted following a meeting of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) Executive.

The dispute at the Passport Office looks set to conclude.

GOVERNMENT representatives were last night said to be tabling proposals on the reform of public sector pensions before the talks with the unions move on to the key issue of how reforms will be measured, and the system for the reversal of recent public sector wage cuts.

The poorest members of society will be forced in to destitution if staff in social welfare offices go on strike, it was claimed today.

THE Passport Office faces a full-out strike if there is a failure in crunch talks between the Government and trade unions which get underway today.

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.

THE union representing lower paid civil servants has warned that their industrial action is likely to escalate if no deal on public sector pay and reform is reached at intensive talks this weekend.

THE stakes have been significantly raised in the Government’s conflict with the public sector unions, with passport workers ready to strike early next week if their pay is docked.

THE stakes have been significantly raised in the Government’s conflict with the public sector unions with passport workers ready to strike early next week if their pay is docked.

THE number of passports being issued to applicants in Cork is falling short of demand by almost 300 a day – despite more than 700 documents being made available in the past 24 hours.

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.

The head of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) is apologising to those facing long delays at the Passport Office in Dublin because of his union's industrial action.

CIVIL servants at the Dublin Passport Office will strike if the Government carries out a threat to dock the pay of those involved in industrial action.

A STRIKE at Dublin’s seven main hospitals on April 7 will go ahead if firm proposals on the issues of public service pay and the outsourcing of jobs have not emerged from talks between unions and government officials which began yesterday.

PUBLIC service industrial action will continue next week as union leaders meet government officials in an attempt to broker a deal on pay cuts and changes to working practices.

Union chiefs meet today to look at escalating their campaign of industrial action against pay cuts in the public sector.

EMERGENCY service workers will support an escalation of industrial action in the public sector in opposition to wage and service cutbacks.

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

HEALTH worker members of IMPACT trade union will this morning stop answering phone calls from members of the public as part of the escalation of their campaign against budget pay cuts imposed on the public sector.

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

Members of the Civil and Public Service Union are stepping up their industrial action in response to pay cuts.

There are media reports that talks between the Government and the public sector unions have collapsed.

A second senior union leader has admitted public sector job losses are inevitable if pay is not to be cut in next months Budget.

The Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) says its members will not accept any pay cuts in the upcoming Budget.

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

Fianna Fáil TDs are due to be briefed today about the details of the Government's planned NAMA legislation and the level of debt in the Irish property sector.

Campaigners for the Lisbon Treaty today launched a new website which they claim detects lies about the charter.