Ireland

Two of country’s biggest public service unions strongly back new €3.6bn pay deal

Members of Fórsa and primary teachers’ union INTO vote to accept proposed new Government agreement which would run to 2026

Fórsa's Kevin Callinan said the union urged its members to vote in favour of the proposed pay agreement. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

Martin Wall
Fri Mar 15 2024 - 14:23

Members of two of the country’s largest public service trade unions have strongly backed the new €3.6 billion pay deal for State employees.

Members of Fórsa – the largest public service union – voted in favour of the deal by 94 per cent to six per cent.

Primary level teachers who are members of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) backed the proposed agreement by 82 per cent to 18 per cent.

Overall, 19 unions are to ballot their members on the proposed deal reached in January which provides for increases of up to 17 per cent for the least well-paid staff in the civil and public service over the lifetime of the proposed accord which runs until 2026.

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Ultimately the decision on whether or not to accept the pay deal will be made by the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) based on the aggregate of the results of ballots held by the 19 unions. The public services committee of Ictu is scheduled to meet on March 25th.

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said that the union’s national executive had in February urged its members to vote in favour of the proposed pay agreement.

He said 52,729 Fórsa members took part in the ballot. He said 94 per cent voted in favour. He said the turnout was 67 per cent.

[ Public sector pay: How did the State’s €2.9bn offer add up? ]

INTO general secretary John Boyle said on Friday that members had recognised that the proposed agreement would “significantly increase their purchasing power in the period ahead, thereby narrowing the earnings’ gap that developed in the previous two years”.

“After two months of painstaking negotiations either side of Christmas, the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions secured an agreement that our members have welcomed as it will provide significant salary increases including a 2.25 per cent uplift or €1,125 (whichever is greater) backdated to 1 January 2024 and pay certainty for the following 30 months.”

“In keeping with the strategy adopted by union negotiators over the last four years, our newest recruits who began teaching last September will receive cumulative increases of 10.75 per cent while the majority of members will see their gross salaries increasing by 9.62 per cent during the lifetime of the agreement.”

He said the local bargaining element of the new deal would provide the union with a €100 million fund, of which the first €33 million would accrue from September next year.

“We are determined to use this fund to make primary teaching as attractive a career as it was before successive governments unilaterally imposed draconian cuts to teachers’ salaries and conditions of service during the austerity era.”

The Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe last month described the agreement reached with public service trade unions as “progressive” and “fair”.

He forecast that the new pay deal would cost €3.6 billion over four budget years.

The proposed deal provides for:

• A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of 2.25 per cent or €1,125, whichever is greater, backdated to January 1st, 2024.

• A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of one per cent on June 1st, 2024.

• A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of one per cent or €500, whichever is greater, on October 1st, 2024.

• A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of two per cent or €1,000, whichever is greater, on March 1st, 2025.

• A general round increase in annualised basic salary for all public servants of one per cent on August 1st, 2025.

Martin Wall

Martin Wall

Martin Wall is the former Washington Correspondent of The Irish Times. He was previously industry correspondent

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