Two unions to decide fate of Croke Park pay deal

THE Government will know by the end of today whether the deal on public service pay and reform which it hammered out with trade unions in Croke Park is to stand or fall.

The country’s two largest public service unions, IMPACT and SIPTU, will publish the results of their ballots on the deal over the next few hours.

The Croke Park terms guarantee no pay cuts before 2014 in exchange for significant head-count reductions. They also indicate, but do not guarantee, that pay cuts in the December budget will start to be reversed in exchange for viable proof of savings from the transformation agenda.

The expectation is that the 55,000 members of IMPACT and the 70,000 public service members of SIPTU will back the deal.

There are elements in both unions who have already indicated their opposition to the proposals on the basis that banks, not public servants, caused the economic crisis, and so the latter should not have to pay the price for the failures of the former.

Nevertheless, there are several ingredients which should make the deal too attractive to pass up.

Guarantees on outsourcing are particularly attractive to SIPTU as the jobs of many of its members in such areas as cleaning would be susceptible to being sold off.

And in both unions, the current financial crisis makes the guarantee of no pay cuts for the next four years too attractive to ignore.

IMPACT and SIPTU are the last of the big unions affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to complete their ballots on the Croke Park terms. Up to yesterday, seven unions had balloted for and seven against the terms.

Next Tuesday each union will send its representatives to the Public Services Committee of ICTU where a final ballot will be held to decide the overall union position. The members of that committee will be assigned a block of votes. The total number of votes available is 2,885, of which IMPACT will hold 606 and SIPTU will hold 719.

If those unions do decide to back the deal they would, along with those who have already voted in favour, constitute an overwhelming majority in deciding the ICTU position.