Low-paid civil servants demand the closure of wages gap

The trade union representing low-paid civil servants has warned it will pull out of next week’s pay restoration talks “like a hare from a trap” if there is no attempt to close the gap between its members and higher-paid public servants.

Eoin Ronayne, general secretary of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU), said there was a “grossly unbalanced progression” in the wages of higher-paid public servants compared to their lower-paid colleagues.

“Lower-paid public servants were left behind by the Celtic Tiger,” he told delegates at the union’s annual conference in Killarney.