North's civil servants strike as pay dispute continues

Up to 20,000 civil servants across Northern Ireland were today staging another one-day strike as part of a continuing pay dispute.

It is the third day-long stoppage by members of public service union Nipsa, and follows three days of disruption to the workings of government offices this week when telephonists on their switchboards went on strike.

Next week more than 20 veterinary and meat inspection staff at the Department of Agriculture in Belfast are to mount an extended strike which the union expects will force the closure of two key meat plants in Ballymena and Crumlin, Co Antrim.

The union say the dispute is over the failure of the British government to provide civil servants with a cost-of-living pay increase from April last year.

General secretary John Cory claims finance minister Ian Pearson’s assertions that staff were receiving a 3.67% pay increase were fictional.

“The public should not be misled by the minister’s statements about a 3.67% pay increase,” he said.

“This is an example of government spin. I assure the public that the vast majority of civil servants have received absolutely no increase in their rates of pay from April 2003.”

However all other public servants had received 3%-plus increases in rates of pay, he said.

“That is why civil servants are so angry at this blatantly unfair treatment”.