Union: Meeting to decide role in Croke Park talks

After two days of negotiation, talks on Croke Park II are already in difficulty, with the country’s largest union claiming a meeting later this week will decide if unions walk away.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation last night put a statement on its website from general secretary Liam Doran. In it, he told his 40,000 members that the Government side is to make sectoral presentations to unions tomorrow morning.

“In these presentations, it is expected that the management side will begin to elaborate on the high level agenda they initially presented at Monday’s meeting,” he said.

“It is expected that this will clarify whether the management agenda is, in any way, compatible with the public service unions’ position with regard to the protections (pay/compulsory redundancies) given under the Croke Park Agreement.”

He said public sector unions will meet collectively tomorrow afternoon to discuss what they are told.

“This should allow a decision to be made as to whether the process can continue with any chance of an overall agreement emerging,” he said.

However, another senior union source said Mr Doran’s claims did not reflect the views of the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, that leaving the talks process had not been discussed, and the process had a long way to run.

The source said the expectation was that tomorrow morning’s briefing would simply elaborate on the percentage of the paybill spent on each of the areas of the public service, including areas such as increments.

In a letter to its members yesterday, Impact general secretary Shay Cody said management was “kidding itself if it thinks we will agree a package that includes all the measures it tabled on Monday”.

Siptu vice-president Patricia King said there would be no deal if the Government tried to seek any compulsory redundancies.

At Monday’s talks, unions were told the Government wanted, among other things, pay reductions “at certain levels”, exit mechanisms (considered to be compulsory redundancies), an extra hour on the working day, changes to premium payments, and elimination of increments.