ICTU backs hike deal despite dissent

THE NEW national pay deal cleared its final hurdle yesterday as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) voted by a clear majority to accept the 5.5% wage rise on offer.

Although the deal was passed easily by 267 votes to 110, several significant unions - including the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA), Mandate, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) - voiced strong disapproval of the new deal.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said his members were particularly disappointed that the package agreed did not guarantee enough healthcare investment. “We believe that trade union members, as workers and patients, deserve better and we are calling upon Congress to look again at these current proposals,” he said.

There were also warnings from Opposition parties that many of the social policy commitments promised in Sustaining Progress had not yet been completed.

Labour’s environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore accused the Government of already breaking the agreement by failing to deliver any of 10,000 promised affordable houses.

“The Government has dishonoured that promise, just as they dishonoured the housing commitments in the previous agreement,” he said.

Green Party Finance spokesman Dan Boyle agreed.

“The Government also needs to take stockon its failure to deliver in any real way on the social policy commitments not only of Sustaining Progress but of all the preceding Partnership agreements,” he said.

But for the most part, the national pay deal - the second installment of the Sustaining Progress agreement - was widely welcomed by the country’s largest unions and the business sector.

However, IBEC director general Turlough O’Sullivan warned that the wage rises agreed were at the top limit of what employers could afford.

“It is very much in the national interest that all those who have signed up to it should fully comply with its terms and recognise that flexibility and change in the workplace are essential to survive in a global economy,” he said.

ICTU spokeswoman Sally Anne Kinahan said it was important the Government delivered promised tax cuts in December’s budget.

“We will also be carefully watching increases in Government charges and energy price rises in petrol and gas,” she said.

Against the deal:

Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA).

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI).

Builders and Allied Trade Union (BATU)

Irish Medical Organisation (IMO).

Prison Officers Association (POA).

MANDATE - retail workers.