Talks to restore pay to public servants

Low-paid public service workers will be the first to see their pay restored under a new round of pay talks but the process of reinstating previous salary levels could take years, it has emerged.

Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said yesterday that low-paid workers would be the first to see pay restored. New pay talks are set to begin in June to undo cuts made during the recession.

Mr Howlin said that the Government would again open its books to trade unions during talks and that a lot of reform had been achieved, including €3bn in pay-related savings.

He pointed out that well-paid civil servants at salaries exceeding €65,000 had experienced three cuts to their pay in the recession and that this had to be “addressed in a sustainable way”. He added: “We will focus the initial restoration on the lowest paid.”

Mr Howlin said he hoped the Department of Public Expenditure would not be abolished now that emergency saving measures were coming to an end, adding that further reform was still needed.

Department secretary general Robert Watt said it would take years to restore some pay cuts but that “hard-won reforms” would not be undone in any new pay deal.

He added that there was “still a challenge” at addressing under-performance in the public sector.

Their comments came as they launched the annual progress report on reform of the public sector. It noted staff numbers had been reduced from 320,400 to 289,600 in six years. There are now 181 fewer bodies in the public service, the report said. Use of online applications, a reduction in the duplication of work, and redeployment had also secured huge savings, the report noted.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has ruled out a return to old-style pay deals agreed between workers and employers. “Local pay bargaining is clearly working for businesses and their staff — this Government will not return to the old social partnership model of centralised pay determination that did so much damage to our competitiveness during the Celtic tiger period,” he said.