Civil servants rule out additional productivity

Mid-ranking civil servants have ruled out providing any additional productivity in return for pay restoration in forthcoming talks with the Government.

The president of the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) Brendan Lawless told delegates at its annual conference in Killarney that he wanted to emphasise to those representing the official side that the negotiations would only be about getting money back for public service employees.

“There will be no further concessions in return for restoration of pay,” he said.

“ There may be plans in some Government quarters to seek more changes and it may seem like an adroit plan to some people but it does have two major flaws.

“One, we have already given all that we can give and two, we have already given all that we can give. Now I realise that technically this is only one flaw but I thought it was such a big one it was worth mentioning twice.”

Over recent days a number of Fine Gael Ministers have said publicly that they wanted to seek additional productivity in return for pay restoration for staff in the public service.

The general secretary of the PSEU Tom Geraghty described these remarks as "extremely unhelpful in the run-up to difficult- enough engagements in their own right".

He said the position of the public service trade unions was that public servants had suffered a huge burden, they had had their pay cut and seen their conditions disimproved. He said now they wanted to see the beginning of the process of restoration.

“We want to be very clear that that is where we are starting from.”

Mr Geraghty said nobody truthfully expected that the entire €3 billion which had been cut from the public service pay bill over recent years would be “coming back at once” .

He said in advance of the forthcoming talks it would be unwise to start mentioning percentages or amounts.

However, he said that “at some point this year, for the first time in 7 years, we will be coming back to members with a pay increase”.

Mr Lawless also called for a reversal of some measures put in place by the Government for staff over recent years which he said were “purely punitive”.

“The reduction in the amount of flexi-leave one can take is an example of this. The work-life balance measures were sought, fought for and won for a reason. This reason doesn’t change because the economy is in its up or down cycle. The restoration of things like these should also have a beneficial effect for those that rely upon the public services.”

Mr Lawless also said that that those who could afford to pay more tax should pay more and companies that operated and made profits in Ireland "should pay their fair share, their full amount".

He also called for (corporate taxation) “the closure of loopholes that allow international companies to avoid our already low rate”.

“We are all aware of big global corporations avoiding paying tax.

"A recent report has revealed that a company deliberately avoided paying over €1 billion in corporate taxes in Europe over the five year period 2009-2013. While transnational corporations are avoiding taxes in Europe, public sector workers have had their wages slashed."

“More than 56,000 tax inspectors have been cut throughout the EU at precisely the moment they are most needed to investigate these corporations. This isn’t fair.”