Union leaders ‘completely unfair and unreasonable’ over public sector strike, says Chambers

Trade union leadership is being "completely unfair and unreasonable" by undertaking strike action without engaging with the Government, the Public Expenditure Minister has said. Picture: Clodagh Kilcoyne/PA Wire

Trade union leadership is being "completely unfair and unreasonable" by undertaking strike action without engaging with the Government, the public expenditure minister has said.

Jack Chambers has criticised union leadership for not starting talks on a new public sector pay deal, as hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are due to strike tomorrow. 

Speaking on his way into Cabinet, Mr Chambers said the Government is ready to have "constructive and meaningful discussions" on a new pay deal.

"We're very clear. We want to discuss pay as a priority, and indeed discuss all of the respective issues that they have, but continuing and pursuing strike action tomorrow is going to cause significant disruption to many people across the country," Mr Chambers said.

The public expenditure minister said it is "really unfair" on the public for strike action to be taken tomorrow, pointing to the closure of schools and cancellation of hospital appointments.

He rejected assertions the Government had come too late to unions with offers for talks, saying contact had been made in June but union leadership walked out and initiated a ballot for strike action.

Mr Chambers said an attempt on Monday to bring the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' (ICTU) public sector committee into the Workplace Relations Commission was a sincere one.

"Continued refusal to talk and escalation of this is simply unfair on the public," Mr Chambers said.

"I'm transparent and clear. We want to get this resolved quickly, and we want to have talks commenced."

Pressed if funding beyond the €1.2bn allocated in the budget could be used to secure a deal, Mr Chambers did not respond directly and reiterated the Government wanted talks with unions.