Union: Public servants must separate anger

THE president of the country’s largest trade union has warned public service workers they must separate their anger over the Government’s handling of banking crisis from the decision they must make on whether to accept or reject the latest pay deal.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor said people were rightly “incensed” at what had been going on with a “golden circle” making up rules as they went along and the fact it was costing the state so much to address the fallout from their actions.

But he said public servants needed to consider the pay deal hammered out between the Government and unions earlier this week “on its intrinsic merits and not on the scandal of the banks”.