TALKS BETWEEN Government officials and trade unions on public sector pay and reform resumed last night with the process facing significant difficulties in a number of areas, including hospitals, the prison service and local authorities.
Transformation plans for the health sector were mentioned as one of the sticking points.
Sources said there was no agreement on areas such as the introduction of new provisions to roster staff for any five out of seven days and to put in place changes to rostering arrangements for nurses.
There were difficulties in relation to rostering arrangements for prison officers and plans for the operation of redeployment in certain areas, such as local authorities, were proving difficult.
Agreement on reform plans for the various sectors will be critical to any move by the Government towards meeting the unions’ demands of reversing pay cuts.
Any deal is likely to centre around a trade-off of staff co-operation with transformation in return for receiving back some of the money lost in the pay cuts.
One union, the CPSU, which represents lower-paid civil servants, is seeking this money to be returned by the end of the year.
Health service reform is seen as crucial, given that the HSE is the largest employer in the State with over 110,000 staff and a budget of more than €14 billion. Among the main aims of the HSE were the introduction of so-called five-over-seven rostering, which would eliminate overtime payments; and changes to nursing roster arrangements which would see staff working shorter, more frequent shifts. Health service unions have thus far opposed these plans.
When the issue of pay is discussed unions are expected firstly to seek guarantees of no further cuts as well as a process for getting money back. Union sources have said this may not involve the setting of specific dates for securing the restoration of pay, but rather timescales for reviewing the level of savings being delivered by the reform programme.
The unions are also looking for a structure which would see the low-paid having quicker access to any reversal of pay cuts. The Government will be seeking for any new commitments to be reviewed in the event of any sudden shock to the economy.
Speaking as the talks resumed last night, the chairman, Kieran Mulvey of the Labour Relations Commission, said the fact that everybody was prepared to return would have to indicate that they were there to get a deal.
General secretary of the Public Service Executive Union Tom Geraghty said there was a lot of work to do but he would be reasonably confident. Mike Jennings, of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, said he was optimistic. The employers’ group Ibec last night said that reversing public sector pay cuts was inconceivable in the current climate and that public sector reform measures should be independently verified.