MEMBERS of the Civil and Public Service Union have voted by eight to one to reject the latest pay offer from the Government under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work.
The result is likely to lead to an escalation of the industrial action the union is already taking over the public sector recruitment embargo. The CPSU executive is meeting later today to consider its options.
The 10,000 strong union represents clerical grades throughout "the civil service. It has imposed an overtime ban because of the recruitment embargo, which only allows one vacancy in three to be filled in the civil service. The overtime ban is already affecting services to the public in a number of areas, such as the Environment Protection Agency and the Land Registry.
Under the PCW, the CPSU cannot take industrial action over pay. However the union is not prevented from doing so on other issues, such as the embargo.
There was a 75 per cent turn out in the pay ballot and members voted by 6,422 to 868 to reject the terms. The offer proposes amalgamating the clerical assistant and clerical officer grades. This means that clerical, assistants with a top pay rate of £230 a week could now progress to the top of the higher clerical officer grade of £280.
However, the Department of Finance wants the new scale phased in over 10 years. Commenting after yesterday's ballot, a senior officer of the CPSU, Mr Blair Horan, said that "the principal reason for rejection was that the deal doesn't address the issue of low pay. The Department is asking clerical assistants to start doing the work of clerical officers now and wait 10 years to get what is, in any case, a fairly moderate rate of pay."
He added that the overtime ban over the public sector embargo would remain in place.