Unions demand Cowen meeting over wage deal

UNIONS have demanded a meeting with Taoiseach Brian Cowen to tell him Tuesday’s budget may have scuppered their chances of selling the national wage agreement to members.

General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) David Begg said the 1% levy on all workers, irrespective of income, imposed by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was “politically and morally wrong”.

He said the ICTU needed to meet with Mr Lenihan and Mr Cowen urgently to press for changes in the application of the levy before the Finance Bill is enacted.

The executive of the country’s biggest union, SIPTU, met yesterday to discuss whether to recommend acceptance or rejection of the new wage deal.

After three hours of discussion the union decided to await the outcome of the meeting between the Taoiseach and ICTU on the budget before deciding on a direction to its members.

The ballot of those members was due to start today but has been postponed until next Thursday.

“The feeling among the executive members was very good towards the agreement but very bad towards the budget and very concerned as to whether that budget has just cancelled the agreement,” said SIPTU President Jack O’Connor. “We need to find out what, if anything can be done about the budget. We need some clarity as to the general direction the Government is taking because, if it is going to be about screwing workers and ordinary people, it is incompatible with the principles set out in the Towards 2016 Agreement.”

He said the union fully accepted that revenue needed to be raised, but it would have expected that the burden would have been put on those who had done best out of the Celtic Tiger.

SIPTU has already indicated an acceptance of the new deal which offers 6% over 21 months coupled with the Government’s new levy would actually mean a 0.7% decrease in the money in its members’ pockets when inflation was taken into account.

Meanwhile, John Douglas of Mandate trade union which represents low-paid retail workers has said his members’ jobs are at risk as a result of the budget.

“The 1% income levy coupled with the VAT increase means that average and low-paid workers will have less disposable wealth and will be facing increases in prices for a lot of everyday items. What this suggests is that spending will continue to decrease, putting retail jobs at risk and continuing the cycle of the economic recession,” he said.

Mr Douglas said that, while his union executive had previously recommended the new national wage agreement, the budgetary measures may have been too stark for his members to vote in favour of the deal.