Unions can’t afford to disregard deadline as negotiations intensify

Stephen Rogers says unions believe the Feb 28 target is ‘doable’

Five years ago, public service unions might well have had scant regard for a management-imposed deadline on reaching agreement on sweeping changes across their ranks.

However, the event of Dec 2009 still hang over the heads of hundreds of thousands of public sector workers. Failure to reach agreement with management resulted in a 7% pay cut to their core wages. Any further reductions on take-home pay under Croke Park II will be taken from that reduced total.

The Government has now said Feb 28 is the deadline for concluding a deal on saving €1bn under the extension to Croke Park. The Taoiseach has been among those who have said that the money will be found either with the agreement of public service unions or without.

In a communication to its members yesterday, Impact revealed the Government negotiators had upped the ante last week.

“Management reiterated that it wanted a negotiated agreement, but said it would seek to impose payroll savings of at least €1bn if agreement couldn’t be reached. In this circumstance, management revealed that it could apply ‘focused’ legislation, as opposed to ‘one size fits all’ measures like the 2010 pay cuts and the 2009 pension levy,” the union stated.

Sources within the trade union movement have said that deadline is “doable” and that, if the talks are not concluded by that date, there will be intensive round-the-clock talks over the following weekend.

In spite of both sides insisting the talks have entered an advanced stage, a lot of negotiation remains as to how to find the full €1bn.

Three key figures have emerged:

*At least €350m will come from a combination of increased working hours and a pay reduction for the upper echelons of the public service;

*€170m is to come from cuts to premium payments for working Saturdays, Sundays and twilight hours;

*It is likely that the Government will seek to eradicate a large chunk of the €125m paid to teachers under supervision and substitution would be axed.

In its message to members, Impact said it believes that the gap between the two sides on the number of extra hours to be worked will narrow.

Government negotiators had been looking for across the board increases of five hours per week. The unions will not concede that many but does admit a reduction would lead to more savings as it would reduce the dependence on overtime, agency workers and contractors.

After the above areas, approximately €400m will still need to be sought. Some of that is likely to come from cuts to top pensions, reductions in allowances and the freezing of increments. However, that will still leave tens of millions of euros in cuts to be found in each of the public service sectors.