Collapse of talks ‘a bid to drive down pay’
Irish Congress of Trade Unions leader David Begg said the Government was looking for a pay cut in the public sector, not just to correct the country’s finances but also to achieve a competitive devaluation of wages right across the economy in order to improve competitiveness.
“It would have been felt by business that if this (unpaid leave) had been achieved in the public sector we would not be able to resist it in the private sector,” he said.
