PUBLIC SERVICE union leaders have said there appears to be no prospect now of averting the proposed national public service strike scheduled for November 24th in protest at Government proposals to cut pay for staff on the State payroll.
Speaking following a meeting of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions yesterday, Peter McLoone said the unions and the Government were “on a trajectory to conflict” and that it would take a huge effort to change that.
He said that he expected that a substantial number of unions would now be taking part in the strike. He did not anticipate a last minute agreement to avert the proposed industrial action on the 24th as far too much work remains to be done.
Mr McLoone, general secretary of Impact, said the unions had not made much progress in talks with the Government on its proposals to reduce the public sector pay bill by €1.3 billion.
He said the unions had not received assurances they had sought from the Government in relation to pay, pensions and compulsory redundancies.
The unions had expected to receive details of the Government’s plans for transforming public services in the years ahead, information on the amount already contributed by staff as well as a menu of options for cutting the wage bill by €1.3 billion next year.
He said that they had not received this material although it could be available later this week.
Mr McLoone said the Government needed to provide clarity on its future plans for the public service.
He said that it needed to set out how it would affect individual workers as well as the provision of services themselves.
He said that to energise people for the challenges ahead, the Government had “to recognise what they had contributed so far, be clear in its ambition and in that context talk about what contribution may be needed in 2010 beyond that already made”.
Mr McLoone said that there was a very solid view emerging among the public sector unions “that recognises that if we have to bridge this gap it is going to be painful regarding what route we take”.
He said that the unions were still in talks with the Government on an alternative to the plan to generate the €1.3 billion saving on the public sector pay bill by means of pay cuts. However, he said that there was no date set for these discussions to resume.
“It seems to us that the resumption should be informed by the availability of the response we are looking for on all three fronts” – details of the contribution made by public service staff to date, the Government’s vision for the size of the public service in the future and the menu of options for the cuts in 2010.
However, he said that based on the contacts he had, this information was likely to be available before the end of the week.
Mr McLoone said that there was a very determined mood among those who provided public services “that the Government will not be allowed to simply announce reductions in pay, changes in pensions and maybe even the operation of compulsory redundancies without there being a response from them”.
He said that people did not relish the prospect of strikes and rows but they felt they were being forced into a position by a Government which would not engage.
Mr McLoone said that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions was resolved to protect the pay of all staff in the public service. He defined pay as “everything they receive”.
However, he warned that he could not nor would not give any group a guarantee that they would be excluded from the pain.