Impact wants public and private sector pay restored

One of the country’s largest public service unions has said talks on pay restoration for public servants will have to form part of a wider drive for pay recovery for all workers.

It is now almost a fortnight since Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said talks would begin next year on reversing elements of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts, which included the pension levy in 2009 and cuts to pay rates in 2010 and pensions in 2011. It also underpinned temporary pay reductions under the Haddington Road Agreement.

In a blog on his union’s website, Impact’s head of communications Bernard Harbor told members that “unions must argue the case for public service pay restoration in the broader context of recovery for all”. “Virtually everyone is worse off now than they were a few years ago, but it has happened in different ways depending on where you work and what your personal circumstances are,” he said. “Impact’s strategy for pay restoration reflects this by highlighting the need for continued action on unemployment, along with pay restoration in the public, private and community sectors – including the restoration of effective statutory wage-setting mechanisms for the lowest paid workers in the private sector.”