THE UNION representing high-level civil servants has said it expects its members to back the proposed public service pay and reform deal in a ballot to be concluded later this week.
General secretary of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants, Dave Thomas, said the result of the ballot would be announced at the start of its annual conference, which takes place in Dublin on Friday.
He said the deal negotiated at Croke Park offered “the best formula for progress under the present economic circumstances”.
“This is the only show in town. The majority, I think, will be voting in favour. The feedback I have got is that the promise of no pay cuts before 2014 is as good as we can get and the mechanism for the reversal of the pay cut is a good proposal on the table, considering the finances of the State. We do not see any alternatives,” he said.
The first ballot result on the Croke Park deal is expected tonight when the Public Service Executive Union announces the result of its ballot tonight. The executive of the union, which represents about 10,000 mid-ranking civil servants, has urged members to support the proposals.
It was expected that a meeting yesterday of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions would have considered clarifications on aspects of the Croke Park deal which had been sought by some unions.
However, the clarifications, being drawn up by Labour Relations Commission chief executive Kieran Mulvey were not circulated to members in time for the meeting. The clarifications are expected to be provided today.
They could prove crucial in determining the stance of the executive of Impact, the largest public service union, towards the deal. Initially, Impact’s executive urged members to reject the agreement – but it later sought clarification on the proposals.
A spokesman for the public services committee said it had noted at its meeting yesterday that its constitution allowed for decisions – such as the overall ratification of the Croke Park deal – to be decided by majority vote, following the ballots of members of individual unions.
Under this process, each union is given a “weight” based on its membership in the public service.
Informed sources said while a number of unions, particularly in the education area, have difficulty with the Croke Park deal being dealt with in such a manner, the meeting yesterday did not really address the issue.
The meeting was given new membership figures on which the weighting system would be applied in such a vote.
Out of a possible total of 2,885 card votes, Siptu would have 719 and Impact 606.
This means that if members of Siptu and Impact voted in favour of the deal along with a number of smaller unions, the “yes” side would have a majority.
Mr Thomas said yesterday that the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants backed the principle of a majority decision on the Croke Park deal when the public services committee came to consider the proposed agreement.