Union plans escalation of protest

WITH 250,000 public sector workers now on a nationwide work-to-rule over the pay cuts announced in the December Budget, the union representing low-paid civil servants is to escalate its protest through more radical, unannounced action designed to cause greatest disruption to management.

Following a meeting of its senior executive yesterday, the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), which represents 13,000 workers, confirmed it has started balloting its members for strike action. That ballot will be complete by the end of the month. However, in the meantime, it said it will up the intensity of its existing action through a range of more intensive disruptive tactics.

Managers will not be informed when or in which part of the civil service members will act leaving them no time to put contingency plans in place. The union would not outline what form the enhanced protests would take. The CPSU has also put a moratorium on its members doing any other work than their own, a measure already in place for members of various other public service unions. The move came as Labour Relations Commission chairman Kieran Mulvey confirmed he will meet senior union leaders later this week to see what mediation he can offer in the ongoing dispute between unions and the Department of Finance over the fall-out from the pay cuts announced in the budget.