IMPACT warns Govt against enforced public-sector redundancies

The country's largest public service trade union has warned the Government that job cuts in the sector must be on a voluntary basis.

IMPACT said the reduction of 23,500 posts by 2015 can only be imposed in the context of the Croke Park Agreement on public sector pay and reform.

The union said Fine Gael and Labour must honour the commitment not to cut public servants' pay further or implement compulsory redundancies.

IMPACT's deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan also said frontline services would have to be maintained as part of the Croke Park deal.

The Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin also said today that 40 decentralisation projects were being cancelled, 22 more would be reviewed, and that only 32 (where properties are in place) would go ahead.