LOWER–PAID civil servants are today to vote on proposals to step up their campaign of industrial action in a bid to force the Government to abandon the pension levy for staff in the public service.
Such a move could involve the possible disruption of the collection of revenue for the State as well as State exams.
The annual conference of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) in Galway will debate an emergency motion put forward by its national executive seeking an intensification of the current protests against the levy. This would be likely to involve a campaign of targeted industrial action in a number of areas to be determined by its strike committee.
Sources said if the motion was adopted by the conference, the areas that could be targeted included State revenue-generation processes, State exams, driving test arrangements and the operation of passport offices.
The conference is also to consider a second emergency motion calling on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) to organise a one-day strike among all public sector workers as the first step in a campaign of escalating action to have the pension levy scrapped.
The general secretary of the CPSU, Blair Horan, said last night the executive motions reflected the anger at the levy and the determination of the membership to oppose it.
He said if the motions were passed, the proposed escalation of the dispute would get under way if the current social partnership talks failed to address the levy concerns of CPSU members.
About 13,000 CPSU members have already taken part in a one-day strike against the levy as well as several lunchtime protests.
The first emergency motion to be considered by the conference today seeks “to step up the CPSU campaign against the pension levy pay cuts and instructs the strike committee to prepare a comprehensive campaign of targeted industrial action to make the Government abolish the pension levy on public servants”.
The second emergency motion calls on the union’s executive to publicly canvass for a united campaign by all public sector unions against the levy and to oppose “all potential detrimental and fundamental changes to the pension rights of current and future public sector workers as has been speculated with increasing alarm through the media”.
It also calls on Ictu to organise a one-day strike by all public sector workers “as the first step in a campaign of escalating action to have the pension levy scrapped”.