Public service pay deal close to collapse

THE public service pay agreement is on the verge of collapse after the executive of the country’s largest solely public service union refused to back it.

IMPACT, the trade union that commentators had considered most likely to back the deal, last night stopped short of recommending an outright rejection to its 55,000 members. However, it is understood the executive will proceed with that recommendation after they reconvene next week.

The decision is in spite of the fact that IMPACT’s own general secretary, Peter McLoone, lead the trade union movement’s negotiating team in the talks with the Government last week.

The terms involved no more pay cuts before 2014 in exchange for major reforms across the public sector. They also offered the potential a restoration of pay scales cut in the last budget if those reforms guaranteed agreed verifiable savings.

Mr McLoone described the terms agreed as the best that could be achieved through negotiation. It was also widely acknowledged that if the deal was not backed, the only alternative is an escalation to major disruptive strike action.

However, after a four- hour meeting, IMPACT executive members decided they could not recommend the deal. Much of their decision came down to a deep distrust of the Government.

They felt there was no certainty that the pay scales cut would be restored and said even the guarantee of no more pay cuts until 2014 could not be trusted given that the pension levy and budgetary pay cuts last year were introduced unilaterally.

Another determining factor was the Government’s actions over the banks. They said the contribution by public servants to the Exchequer finances barely paid the interest on the bailout of Anglo Irish Bank. While public servants were being asked to give more for less money, the Government approved pay increases for the heads of Anglo, they said.

“It would now be an underestimation to say that the public service agreement was in trouble. It is very hard to imagine it surviving,” said one union source.

If, next Tuesday, the executives of both the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU also decide to recommend rejection, it is almost certain that the long-awaited transformation of the public service will remain a pipe dream and the country will be set for prolonged and massively disruptive strike action.