The Government needs to use the coming public sector pay talks to reconnect with the concerns of ordinary workers across the economy, one of the union side’s lead negotiators has said.
Kevin Callinan, general secretary of Fórsa, said concessions made to the hospitality sector on VAT and in the recent fuel protests show the Government’s willingness to accommodate sectors that shout the loudest when much of the wider population is losing faith in its ability to deliver for them.
Callinan was speaking ahead of the Fórsa annual conference in Killarney (May 13th-15th). The trade union is the second largest in the country after Siptu with more than 80,000 members and is the largest public sector union.
“One of the interesting things about the recent fuel protests was the level of public support,” said Callinan.
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“I think that can only be explained by a sense of frustration on the part of ordinary people about the difficulties that they’re having – whether it’s the cost of living, access to services, spending ridiculous amount of time commuting to work, particularly in circumstances where they feel there is another way of doing it.”
Callinan, who chairs the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said these broader concerns need to be part of the conversation when the two sides sit down this summer to negotiate a successor to the 2024 deal that expires at the end of June.
He hinted at the possibility of a return to the social partnership – the succession of agreements between the government, employer groups and unions that ran from the late 1980s until just before the economic crash.
While Callinan did not use the term, he suggested the achievements of the model have been unfairly disparaged by people who weren’t a part of the process.
“One of the things that troubles me is that there’s a lot of references to social partnership and a return to social partnership from people, including some in high political office, who don’t really understand what they’re talking about because they weren’t there. They didn’t live that experience,” he said.
“So there is a need to kind of get over the kind of ideological fixation around this and to engage in pragmatism designed to improve the situation and regain the confidence of ordinary workers, ordinary citizens that things can actually be better because people don’t feel their voices are being heard.”
Despite suggestions from the Government side that talks on a new deal, which would directly affect the pay and conditions of 400,000 people employed by the State or its agencies, are set to get under way within weeks, Callinan said there has been no formal approach to the unions so far.
When they do start, he said, they will need to address not just pay in the context of heightened food and fuel inflation. They will also need to address the Government’s lack of support for workers and their families through income tax indexation or other measures in the last budget but also workplace issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) and outsourcing and broader societal concerns around housing, childcare and transport infrastructure.
Callinan said this determination to have wider issues than just wages addressed was driven by union members and he was adamant the organisation can make a positive contribution in circumstances where there is a perception the Government is failing to implement solutions.
“I have no doubt that we could come up with particular actions in respect of housing and other issues that would improve the situation,” he said.
“And it’s not just housing. If we consider the disruption that is coming so rapidly with AI to employment, the idea that we wouldn’t be engaging in a kind of cross-Government way about that, looking to manage the consequences, just wouldn’t make sense.”
