Trade union leaders and Government officials have resumed talks on proposals for reducing the public sector pay bill next year by introducing a new temporary unpaid leave arrangement for staff on the State payroll.
The Government is seeking to make savings of €1.3 billion on the public sector pay bill next year.
Government officials and senior trade union leaders were last night engaged in top-level talks in a bid to see how plans to generate savings sought by the Government in the public sector pay bill next year by means of a new unpaid leave arrangement could be applied to the health service.
The introduction of such a temporary unpaid leave scheme has emerged over recent days as the central feature of an alternative plan proposed by trade unions for reducing the public sector pay bill without cutting actual pay levels.
Informed sources said last night that while there were difficulties in applying such an unpaid leave arrangement in all areas of the public sector, there were particular problems in the health service where the largest number of staff on the State payroll are employed.
Government officials are also understood to have put forward new proposals for reforms in the public sector, including greater scope to redeploy staff right across the public sector, the introduction of one additional hour per week for teachers and a review of all existing third-party agreements between management and unions in the health sector.
Union sources also said that the Department of Justice wanted to introduce a core day of 8am–8pm for gardaí during which overtime payments would not apply. Management in the health service are also seeking the introduction of an 8am–8pm core day for staff.
Union sources said that the Department of Justice also wanted to put in place new rostering arrangements to minimise the payment of overtime and premium rates at other times.
Informed sources said that public service management also wanted to remove the existing arrangement for staff in the Civil Service to be given time off to cash their pay cheques.
Union sources said last night that the question of how much the introduction of an unpaid leave arrangement would generate in savings, and also how it would work operationally in different parts of the public sector, were still being examined by the parties.
If the current talks are unsuccessful, civil and public servants around the country are set to stage a further 24-hour stoppage this coming Thursday.
Some sources said last night that some in public sector management would prefer the introduction of unpaid work to unpaid leave. However, union sources said that this issue had not been raised in the negotiations so far.
Meanwhile the business network group Chambers Ireland has criticised proposals put forward by trade unions to cut the public sector pay bill by introducing a new compulsory unpaid leave arrangement for staff.
In a statement, deputy chief executive of Chambers Ireland Sean Murphy said that while the unions' proposal was worthy of recognition, the introduction of compulsory unpaid leave as a temporary measure "will not address our underlying challenges".
"Any move to introduce unpaid leave without reducing the public sector pay bill simply avoids the issue. We need permanent, sustainable solutions, not temporary ways out," he said.
"Without cutting real costs we face the very real threat of a stunted governmental sector covering its wage, pensions and debt servicing costs while being absolutely unable to address other strategic imperatives
such as dealing with our recession, maintaining properly funded public services and driving the ongoing development of our economy and society.
"Given that wage and pension costs are the most significant element of the public service cost base we need to deal with this issue now rather prevaricate to a date when the vagaries of the election cycle will make
this issue even harder to address," he said.