LOWER-PAID civil servants are to escalate industrial action in protest at pay cuts introduced in the budget.
At a special delegate conference yesterday, members of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU)decided to take stronger action from this morning, and to further escalate their campaign from next Monday.
Members of the union have been engaged in low-level industrial action for the past week. This has resulted in some public offices being forced to close at lunchtime, while some staff have also refused to answer telephones.
CPSU general secretary Blair Horan said there was a clear mandate for more intensive action, and “the Government now has a fight on its hands”.
The move came as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Employment Mary Coughlan again declined to give an assurance that public sector workers would not face another pay cut in next year’s budget.
Speaking in the Dáil, she said no one was in a position to predetermine next year’s budget adjustments. However, the Government was anxious to pursue public sector reform, which would reduce the pressure for savings on pay.
The Cabinet yesterday discussed the industrial action in the Civil Service but a memo drawn up by the Department of Finance setting out measures that could be taken against unions was not circulated.
These include the option of ceasing the deduction of union subscriptions at source and ending the practice of union activists receiving pay while attending union conferences.
To date the CPSU industrial action has involved staff in particular offices only. Mr Horan said that from today industrial action could take place on a regional basis.
He said the CPSU strike committee would meet on Monday to consider an escalation of the dispute.
He acknowledged there was a risk that staff engaged in such escalated action could be removed from the payroll. If this occurred there would be a strike.
Mr Horan said the union leadership had proposed some escalation of the action but delegates at yesterday’s conference had voted to go further.
The CPSU conference also backed a proposal for a ballot of members on strike action.
Mr Horan told delegates at the conference that lower-paid staff had seen wages cut by 12-13 per cent and the union would not tolerate “poverty wages” for lower-paid staff in the Civil Service.
He described as “unfair and outrageous” the Government decision to make a U-turn on the level of pay cuts originally earmarked for top civil servants.
He also maintained that while lower-paid civil servants had now lost all the gains made in the benchmarking process, this had not been the case for higher grades.
Tens of thousands of civil and public servants, represented by a number of unions, are currently engaged in industrial action. However, no significant disruptions were reported again yesterday.