Talks focus on public sector pension reform before moving to key pay issue

GOVERNMENT representatives were last night said to be tabling proposals on the reform of public sector pensions before the talks with the unions move on to the key issue of how reforms will be measured, and the system for the reversal of recent public sector wage cuts.

Before talks resumed at the Croke Park Conference Centre at 7pm last night, Labour Relations Commission chief executive and talks’ facilitator, Kieran Mulvey, said the participants had “brought a lot of the issues a long way”.

He said all sides were now reflecting on their positions “in order to bring the big jigsaw or compendium of issues together”.

As the talks resumed, nothing concrete had been proposed by government officials on the key issue of pay, with sectoral deals on public sector transformation still under discussion.

Mr Mulvey said the negotiators were aiming to put together a two or three-year deal and “the talks will continue until we are in a position to get agreement”.

Unions are seeking guarantees of no further pay cuts as well as a process for getting money back.

This is not expected to be defined by specific dates, but rather in return for savings achieved through service reform. The unions are looking for a structure which would see the low-paid having their wage cuts reversed first. In the talks’ shorthand this is being described as “a route to the loot”.

The Government will be seeking a “get-out-of-jail card” under which commitments would be reviewed if the economy were to seriously deteriorate further.

It is understood negotiators on all sides believe a workable deal could be concluded this week, although particular sticking points involving the low-paid and health ‘reforms’ could yet scupper an agreement. Any proposals that emerge would need to be ratified by the separate unions.

Among the union negotiators at the talks is CPSU general secretary, Blair Horan.

His union, which represents low-paid civil servants, some of whom are on an annual salary of €23,000, has been at the centre of the ongoing industrial action at the passport office.

Yesterday, around 60 people were queuing at the Dublin Passport Office when it opened, but the lengthy delays witnessed last week had eased.

People expressed frustration at the backlog in applications, saying it still remained unclear if priority was being given to urgent holiday travel plans.

The CPSU has served full-scale strike notice in the passport office which could take effect from this week, and escalate industrial action across the civil service if no overall agreement, which sees its members’ wage cuts reversed this year, is agreed.

The Community Platform, representing 29 anti-poverty and equality organisations, said they supported the CPSU position.

Spokeswoman Anne Costello said: ‘This government had alternative choices but chose to hit the most vulnerable the hardest.”