Unions set six week strike deadline

UNION leaders have given the Government six weeks to commit to reversing public service pay cuts or face nationwide strikes across key services.

The public sector committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) will meet on March 8 to decide how to escalate their ongoing action against the pay cuts introduced in the December budget.

IMPACT, the biggest solely public service union, has already said it will be pushing for rolling work stoppages across sectors. That is likely to be accepted by the other unions and it will then be a matter of deciding how soon to start the escalation.