With both Dublin Bus and Luas drivers securing double-digit wage increases and gardaí threatening strikes over their pay, two of the country’s leading trade unionists have called for a renegotiation of the latest public service pay agreement.

A trade union representing low-paid civil servants has claimed new recruits are now earning up to €7,000 less than their lowest paid colleagues in some roles.

They’re one of the biggest bands in the world, and have been for decades, but it’s far from sell-out stadiums U2 were raised.

Public servants have secured pay rises in the region of €2,000 over the next three years after talks with Government.

Public Sector unions say they want a flat rate pay increase to form part of a collective agreement on pay.

The trade union representing low-paid civil servants has warned it will pull out of next week’s pay restoration talks “like a hare from a trap” if there is no attempt to close the gap between its members and higher-paid public servants.

Even the National Association of Anticlimaxes would have refused the spring statement entry to its ranks for fear of reducing its already disappointing reputation to an all-time low in the minds of right thinking people.

Even the National Association of Anti-Climaxes would have refused the Spring Statement entry to its ranks for fear of reducing their already disappointing reputation to an all time low in the minds of right thinking people, suggests political correspondent Shaun Connolly.

Outsourcing firm Abtran, which operates the helpline for the Revenue’s local property tax received fees of €4.65m for providing the service last year.

The Government has announced an end to the long-running moratorium on recruitment in the public sector with posts to be created in the civil service next year.

The union representing lower-paid civil servants has warned the Government it has to start restoring pay rates to pre-austerity levels.

One in 10 of the workers in full-time employment who are forced to boost their earnings with family income supplement payments are state employees.

One of the country’s most senior public service trade union leaders has cast doubt on the Labour Relations Commission’s ability to engineer agreement between unions and the Government on how to cut the State’s wage bill by €1bn by 2015.

As the membership of yet another union balloted to reject the terms of Croke Park II, the number of unions which have said they will not be bound by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions decision (Ictu) on the deal rose to six.

IMPACT's Central Executive Committee meets today to discuss the revised Croke Park Agreement.

Two of the country’s teacher bodies became the latest unions to advise members to ballot against accepting the terms of the Croke Park II.

The Civil Public and Services Union, which represents lower-ranked public servants has threatened industrial action if measures in the €1bn state pay deal are enforced.

Trade Unions are now mulling over the revised Croke Park Agreement and making up their minds on whether they will accept or reject it.

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.

Several leading trade unions have urged private and public sector workers who are struggling financially to join an anti-austerity march in Dublin on Nov 24.

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

The Government would appear to have two choices — continue to pay public service increments of €180m or look for some other way of completing the €3.5bn in savings sought through the Croke Park deal.

Lower paid civil service workers have decided to campaign for a no vote in next month’s referendum on the EU fiscal treaty.

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

PUBLIC service managers have been asked to put an end to staff taking a traditional festive shopping half-day after the practice came in for strong criticism.

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.

BATTLES are often won by identifying the weak point within the enemy’s ranks and then piling in with all force available.

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.

THE Dublin passport office closed yesterday afternoon as part of an ongoing campaign of industrial action by civil servants.

Unions say there is no chance of avoiding crippling industrial action in the public sector.

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.

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.

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

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.

THE Government’s National Consumer Agency is facing the threat of strike action just weeks after becoming an official body with tough new powers.

HUNDREDS of Department of Agriculture and Food staff, who were taken off the payroll during a 13-week dispute in 2003, are demanding the full repayment of the money they say they are due.

AN POST spent at least €2m on external consultants last year while insisting it could not give staff overdue pay increases, an Oireachtas Committee heard yesterday.

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

The union representing clerical civil servants is seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Finance to discuss the planned decentralisation of eight government departments and state bodies.

POLITICIANS are in line for annual salary increases ranging from €2,000 to €6,000 as a direct result of the Budget.