Industrial action 'inevitable' without meaningful talks on pay, Government warned

Owen Reidy, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. File picture: Niall Carson/PA

Industrial action is “inevitable” if the Government and employers do not engage meaningfully with unions on their pay demands, the head of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has said.

Ictu general secretary Owen Reidy warned the Government about possible strike action, ahead of a meeting of the Labour Employer Economic Forum on Friday afternoon.

Mr Reidy said it is important the Government meet unions “halfway” on supports for PAYE workers.

“If they don’t do that, the message is workers are going to have to — and their unions — seek to protect their pay in the workplace,” he said.

“That's official industrial action, official strike action, not blockades and wildcat behaviour, like we saw last week.” 

Mr Reidy said there has been a “real change” over the last week and that there is now a sense that “might is right”. 

If follows the fuel protests and subsequent blockades of critical infrastructure.

“I think maybe the industrial peace of the last decade has possibly been taken for granted, and that's a serious mistake,” said Mr Reidy.

He asked where the “bespoke package” of measures for PAYE workers is, after a support package was delivered for farmers and hauliers last week.

“What we want to see is a process where Government engage with us over the coming weeks on fundamental issues that will protect workers in this cost-of-living crisis,” said Mr Reidy.

“Some permanent, some temporary, and they need to be reviewed, because we think it's going to get worse before it gets better.” 

Enterprise minister Peter Burke said large parts of the previous package announced by Government do help ordinary workers.

“When you look at the package, about 70% of the package is in relation to excise, carbon tax, and in relation to the NORA Levy,” Mr Burke said.

“The other 30% if you look at that, is in relation to getting groceries on our shelves. So the cost of production, the logistics, and getting it there, trying to mitigate the inflationary risk on bread and milk and all the other groceries that we need every single week.”