20,000 civil servants strike over pay in North

Up to 20,000 civil servants in Northern Ireland are set to strike today.

The North's largest trade union, NIPSA, has called all its civil service members out on a one-day strike in protest over pay – the first such action in more than 16 years.

When the civil servants return to work on Friday they will embark on a work-to-rule including refusing to do any overtime.

NIPSA said “more extensive” strike action by selective groups would follow today’s action. That is expected to involve department-by-department strikes of longer duration by key groups of workers.

The union said pickets were being mounted at all civil service offices in every town and city across Northern Ireland and a rally was being held in Belfast.

The dispute is over a pay offer which the union claims amounts to zero.

Civil service management state the pay offer amounts to an extra 3.67% on the civil service pay bill.

But the union claimed that was “very misleading” as the offer only covered the costs of annual pay-scale increments agreed in previous years for staff not at the top of their pay scale, along with small, non-consolidated bonus payments, but no cost of living increase.

Commenting on the strike NIPSA general secretary John Corey said: “We regret the disruption to public services but we ask the public to recognise that staff are going on strike only as a last resort. Civil service management and ministers have left us no alternative.”

He said the union was seeking only a fair and reasonable increase in the rates of pay for 2003 that “at least gives the staff a cost of living increase and keeps some pace with inflation.”

Mr Corey said civil service staff were angry and demoralised by the way they had been treated by senior management and ministers.

“What has infuriated staff most is that all the senior civil servants in Northern Ireland received their pay increases from April 1, 2003 of between 4% and 9% without a hitch and at a cost of 5.3% on that pay bill,” he said.

Other public servants in Northern Ireland received a cost of living increase of more than 3% from April 1, plus their annual increment payments, he added.

Finance minister Ian Pearson said the latest offer amounted to a pay rise of 3.67%, which ministers considered “fair and reasonable”.