A range of services, including social welfare could be severely disrupted from Monday week as unions escalate significantly their campaign to include strike action.
The move will see a combination of short and indefinite strikes as part of the fight to get the budget pay cuts reversed. Last night the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) served formal strike notice on the Government.
The union also warned any attempt to remove its members from the payroll following such action would lead to an immediate picket on the location involved.
The development could particularly hit services provided by the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Passport Office.
The CPSU, which represents around 13,000 lower-paid civil servants, warned of selective strike action of indefinite duration in some cases and for limited periods in others, to take effect from Monday March 15th. It will also introduce a four-week ban on overtime across the civil service from that date.
In a letter to the Department of Finance, the general secretary of the CPSU, Blair Horan, said “in the event of any member being removed from the payroll, pickets will be placed immediately on the location involved”.
The union said individual Government departments would be advised of the exact nature and scope of the strike action before it began.
The decision to opt for selective strikes could allow the union to bring out relatively small numbers of staff working in key areas and to pay them enhanced levels of strike pay for the duration of any action.
Mr Horan said it was time for the Government to think again and exempt the lower paid from the impact of the pay cuts.
The CPSU decision to serve strike notices comes just days before other public service unions consider an escalation of their industrial actions.
The Republic’s largest public sector union, Impact, and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation are to propose rolling work stoppages across the civil and public service at a meeting of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on Monday.
In his letter last night to the Department of Finance, Mr Horan said the overwhelming vote in favour of action in a ballot earlier this week arose because CPSU members “simply cannot afford the pay cuts imposed on them over the past year”.
“Also the decision to restore pay levels to higher-paid civil servants was met with considerable anger among our members.” he said.
Yesterday the Health Service Executive (HSE) again urged staff to resume normal working, and warned of possible disciplinary action.