THE PUBLIC service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is to meet today to consider progress in the talks with the Government on plans to reduce the public sector pay bill by €1.3 billion.
The meeting has been arranged to discuss the outcome of a two-hour discussion with Department of Finance officials yesterday on a number of key elements.
These included Government plans for reducing numbers on the State payroll and the impact of such a move on services for the public.
The unions also sought information on plans for “bridging” or transitional mechanisms aimed at reducing the public service pay bill next year.Sources close to the talks yesterday said they had dealt with technical costing issues in relation to different parts of the public service.
A number of union sources have indicated they hope to be in a position within the next few days to determine whether there is the possibility of reaching a deal with the Government on the pay bill.
The talks are aimed at producing an alternative means of achieving the €1.3 billion target without cutting pay for staff.
There has been strong speculation that the bridging mechanisms put forward in the menu of options to be drawn up by the Department of Finance would include:
- Paying overtime at a flat rate.
- Introducing a core working day running from 8am to 8pm during which no overtime payments would apply.
- The possibility of staff working a small number of additional hours for no pay.
- The introduction of a number of unpaid days off for staff as well as the establishment of an "increment holiday" or even moving staff back one increment along the scale.
The Department of Finance has signalled that some of the bridging mechanisms could be temporary.
The department has already told unions that staff have contributed savings of about €2.3 billion through the pension levy, pay rises forgone and the moratorium on recruitment.
Department officials have also indicated that if the moratorium on recruitment continued until 2013 there could be up to 25,000 fewer people on the State payroll.
Frontline public sector employees, who work 24/7 shifts, are due to march through Dublin tomorrow, while a one-day public sector strike is scheduled to take place on November 24th.
Officials from the Department of Finance are to meet again with union representatives today.
A small union delegation met a group from the department yesterday for about two hours. Sources were keen to stress that this was “not a full plenary” talks session.
The discussions were described as “mainly technical in nature”, primarily dealing with “costings”. Further meetings are due to take place today but informed sources could not say whether these would be in the same small-group format or on a plenary basis.
The Taoiseach held a 90-minute meeting with Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan yesterday morning to discuss the budget, prior to Mr Cowen’s departure for the celebrations in Berlin.
In addition to the regular Cabinet meeting today, a further meeting on the budget takes place on Thursday.