Workers get €34m in record pay award

THE Government will have to pay €34m to 5,500 lower-paid civil servants, primarily women, in the largest equal pay award in this country.

This follows an out-of-court settlement between the Department of Finance and the 13,000-member Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU), which first lodged the claim on behalf of 26 women clerical workers in 1991.

The 26 will each receive between €30,000 and €35,000 in compensation, back-dated to 1988, while 5,459 others, who were clerical officers in 1997 and are still in that grade, will get some €6,000 each.