Civil servants accept pay deal

Civil servants in Northern Ireland have taken a “take it or leave it” pay offer from the British government in defiance of their union leaders who wanted an all-out strike, it was announced today.

The executive of the public service union NIPSA had urged members to reject the offer and back all-out strike action.

The decision of members to ignore the recommendation signals the end of industrial action which has been running for 40 weeks and caused widespread disruption to the workings of government.

Northern Ireland Finance Minister Ian Pearson last month made a final take it or leave it 16-month offer, backdated to April 1, which he said would add 4.65% to the civil service wage bill and mean pay rises of from 2% and over 8% for some.

The NIPSA executive put the offer out to three weeks’ consultation among members with a recommendation for rejection and urged the province’s 26,000 civil servants to consider all out strike action as the next step in their campaign.

The union revealed today members had voted by the narrow majority of 51.4% against an all out strike and the union was “reluctantly accepting” the offer.

General Secretary John Corey put the Government on notice warning that if ministers failed to take action in the next 10 months to restore fair rates of pay for civil servants in the province it would be balloting members again on strike action.

“No civil servant considers the 16 month pay deal to be fair or reasonable. Our fight to secure fair pay for civil servants will continue. This is no more then the end of Round 1,” he said.

Mr Corey added: “Round 2 starts immediately. Negotiations for pay increases for 2005 will have to be completed within the next 10 months and if these do not restore fair rates of pay for civil servants then we will definitely be balloting again for an all out strike.”

The Northern Ireland direct rule ministers were accused of “gross mishandling” of the lengthy dispute, which Mr Corey said had created “an angry, demoralised and demotivated civil service”.

He added: “This severe damage to the civil service will not be repaired until either direct rule ministers or a devolved administration restore the cuts in civil service pay rates that have been imposed in the last two years.”