LOWER-PAID civil servants have decisively rejected the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform.
Members of the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) voted by 67 per cent to 33 per cent against the agreement. There was a turnout of 74 per cent in the ballot, which was counted yesterday.
The union’s general secretary, Blair Horan, said he believed members had rejected the deal because they did not trust the Government.
While the priority given to the low paid under the Croke Park deal for restoration of pay scales was beneficial, members did not have confidence that it would be delivered by the Government.
The restoration of pay rates was more important to his members than moves to avoid further cuts, he said.
The CPSU, which represents about 13,000 members in the Civil Service, is the first union to vote against the Croke Park deal in a ballot.
Two other Civil Service unions, the PSEU – which represents mid-grade staff – and the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants have already strongly backed the deal.
The executives of seven other public service unions have urged members to vote against the deal. However, the executives of Siptu and Impact, which have the largest number of members in the public service, are backing the agreement.
The fate of the agreement will not be determined finally until the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions meets to consider the issue when all constituent unions have completed their ballots.
This meeting is likely to take place in mid-June.
At present it is expected that the committee will make its decision on the basis of a majority vote, with the different unions given various weights to take account of their memberships.
It is understood that if the agreement is ratified by the public services committee and the CPSU decides to fight on against it, the union is likely to have to hold a further ballot before further industrial action could take place.
If the committee rejects the deal, however, the CPSU could use a mandate for industrial action which it secured earlier this year.