Siptu is willing to use industrial action to win future public service pay increases if the Government decides it does not want a new national agreement when the current one runs out next year, the union’s general secretary elect has said.
Addressing the Siptu conference in Galway, where he was confirmed as its next leader on Tuesday morning, John King said the unions have had no indication yet of whether the Government wishes to negotiate another multi-year deal.
The current agreement, which guarantees increases of 9.25 per cent over two-and-a-half years, plus 1 per cent to address local issues, runs out in June 2026.
Mr King said the Government had delayed a number of promised measures to benefit workers and he had no doubt it would “seek to make hay” when it comes to public sector pay by citing current economic uncertainty but, he told delegates at the biennial delegate conference, the unions would be determined on the issue of pay.
READ MORE
“We should be clear,” he said. “If they don’t want an agreement, let there be no doubt we’re not going to stand idly by. We will not shy away from the battles that will undoubtedly lie ahead, to protect and to advance our members’ interests.”
He said all of the required claims for the 1 per cent local bargaining aspect of the current Public Service Agreement had been lodged but there had been “procrastination” on the management side and at the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform on approving payments which were scheduled to take effect from September 1st.
“I want to make it absolutely clear to all of our members in the public service, we’re not leaving any of this behind. So if it takes us time to get through it, we will get through it. And if that means we have to look at issues around industrial action and strike action, then that’s what we will have to do. This is an agreement they made up with us and we hold them to honour it.”
[ Career Siptu official John King set to become union’s general secretaryOpens in new window ]
He described the Government decision to approve a number of significant pay increases for the chief executives of semi-state bodies after delaying the establishment of a living wage in the place of the existing, lower national minimum wage, as “shameful”.
“Over 20 per cent of workers in this country are categorised as living below the poverty line and for supposedly the fastest growing economy in the world in 2025, that simply isn’t good enough.”
Mr King, who is currently deputy general secretary with responsibility for the public sector, was elected unopposed to the position of Siptu general secretary and will succeed Joe Cunningham, whose term expires in March of next year.
[ Siptu serves strike notice on Carroll’s meatsOpens in new window ]
