Largest public sector union calls for pay talks in response to inflation crisis

The heightened cost of living at present due to mass inflation, particularly in the energy market, led to the Government last week introducing a suite of measures aimed at cushioning the blow of rising bills on the population at large.

The cost of living must be the focus of a new public service pay agreement with negotiations to begin by May of this year, according to the country’s largest public sector union.

Forsa general secretary Kevin Callinan today said that the current agreement, Building Momentum, which was first agreed in December 2020 at the height of the pandemic, had not kept pace with inflation.

The heightened cost of living at present due to mass inflation, particularly in the energy market, led to the Government last week introducing a suite of measures aimed at cushioning the blow of rising bills on the population at large.

Mr Callinan, speaking at the annual general meeting of Forsa’s Kildare Health Branch in Naas on Monday evening, called on the Government to open negotiations on a new pay deal by May of this year at the latest.

He said that the size and timing of any agreed pay adjustments “will need to reflect the realities of the cost of living crisis, which is hurting workers regardless of what sector they work in”.

Building Momentum, which laid the emphasis on “sectoral bargaining” across the public service, had been agreed as a stopgap agreement following an expedited negotiations process due to the issues presented by Covid-19.

Mr Callinan said that the prior agreement had been ignorant of the extent to which inflation would increase in the interim. From that point of view any new successor agreement “must prioritise the restoration and improvement of living standards in the context of high inflation”, he said.

He called on the Government to take “decisive action” in order to protect living standards and ensure the competitiveness of the public sector in a tight labour market.

“We need to act now to stabilise the current public service agreement, which is essential to certainty in public service delivery, industrial relations, and public finances,” he said.

Building Momentum had factored in pay hikes of 0.25% across 2021. Inflation for the year was 2.4%, Mr Callinan said, adding that the EU expects Irish inflation for the full year 2022 to be as high as 4.6%.

“The annualised value of the Building Momentum increases in the same year will not exceed 1.2%, even when sectoral bargaining is taken into account,” he told the meeting.

The idea of sectoral bargaining had been introduced under Building Momentum in order to alleviate pressure from certain professions less content with the blanket nature of the pay provisions.

However, not all of those provisions have yet been ratified by the Government.

Mr Callinan called on the Government to “clear the decks” for negotiations on a new deal by finalising both the sectoral bargaining provisions and the restoration of added working time, a casualty of the post-crash austerity years.

He said that confirmation that talks would begin on a new deal by May is necessary in order to allow enough time to negotiate a new package and consult and ballot union members in time for inclusion of the deal in the next budget in October.

“There is no doubt that we face a challenge. But a failure to act risks turning that challenge into a serious problem for the public finances, for our public services, and for everyone who delivers or depends on them,” he said.