THE GOVERNMENT will not renegotiate the Croke Park deal on public service pay if it is rejected by trade union members, Taoiseach Brian Cowen warned last night.
Speaking at the Fianna Fáil president’s dinner in Cork, he said that the Government had called on those advocating rejection of the deal to spell out their alternatives, but so far that had not happened.
“It is hard to believe that people want full-scale industrial action if the deal is rejected. And it is just wrong for people to believe that a rejected deal can simply be renegotiated in the summer or autumn.
“The position won’t change on either side. Government will still be faced with the same budgetary constraints,” said Mr Cowen.
Referring to the fact that many unions are holding countrywide consultations and information sessions with their members prior to commencing balloting, he added: “The Government in its statement on Wednesday of this week has reaffirmed that it would not enter any deal such as this lightly, and if ratified, that it will work in absolute good faith, in partnership with the public service leaders, under the implementation body provided for in the agreement itself, to drive the planned transformation and generate the proposed savings.”
Explaining the background to the deal, Mr Cowen said the Government and the leaders of congress made an assessment in early March that, for the sake of the country and the prospects of recovery, for the sake of vulnerable citizens dependent more than ever on public services, and for the sake of the pubic servants themselves, engaged in industrial action which could seriously escalate, it was worth trying to forge an agreement.
“We weren’t naive, Government hadn’t found some previously untapped source of income and unions weren’t setting aside the legitimate concerns and aspirations of their members. But we agreed to make an effort, in good faith, to reconcile our positions – in full knowledge of what these were.”
He said it was the public service unions and management, the people best placed to know, who had hammered out the detailed transformation plans for each part of the public service.
“Those plans are based on the experience of workers and managers who know where the blockages are, what practices are impacting negatively on the citizen, where savings could be found, and what redesign of organisations, processes and delivery systems could make a difference to the lives and prospects of patients, school children, the unemployed and all those who rely on or come in contact with public services.”
Mr Cowen added that the deal aimed to deliver certainty that pay rates would not fall and offered a mechanism for them to improve over time.