UNION LEADERS expect up to 250,000 civil and public servants will take part in the national public service strike today.
Unions said last night that outside of the worst flood-affected areas – where members had been exempted from industrial action – they believed there would be a shutdown of public services around the county. However, emergency and essential services will be provided.
Chairman of the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) Peter McLoone acknowledged the strike would cause hardship to people who depended most on public services and that members regretted this deeply.
However, he said members believed the Government had forced them into a strike that nobody wanted or needed.
The nationwide strike in protest at Government plans to cut pay will result in the closure of all public offices and schools. Telephone services operated by Government departments, the Revenue Commissioners and the Passport Office will also be hit.
However, cover will be provided in areas such as Met Éireann and the Coast Guard, where otherwise there could be a threat to life.
Unions have also called off strike action involving local authority and health sector staff in counties Cork, Clare and Galway, which have been badly hit by the flooding crisis.
Over 16,000 hospital patients will have their appointments or procedures cancelled. However, emergency services will be provided in key areas. About 55,000 social welfare customers will have their weekly payment delayed by 24 hours.
Court sittings will be cancelled today except in emergency cases, while the Seanad will not sit and the operation of the Dáil will be curtailed.
Local authority public offices will be closed but minimum emergency and essential cover will be provided for fire and water services.
Pickets are also expected to be placed by the CPSU at the Irish Embassy in London as well as in Brussels. Last night senior HSE figures said a dispute had emerged with ambulance personnel in the northeast who were seeking payment for providing emergency cover.
A Siptu spokesman confirmed that some drivers who were members of the union as well as others who were not had sought payment. He said the union had informed them that in cases of strikes the practice was for staff to provide emergency cover on a voluntary basis.
Meanwhile, the public services committee of Ictu is set to go back into talks with the Government in the immediate aftermath of the strike on an alternative plan for €1.3 billion public sector pay bill savings without reducing pay levels. The talks will be based on a document for reforming public services published by the Government last weekend.
The committee is also to announce today a decision on a possible second stage of industrial action. This could involve either a series of rolling regional stoppages or a further nationwide 24-hour strike.
Mr McLoone said: “If we do engage with the Government, it will be designed to achieve some consensus on the approach that needs to be taken to the transformation programme, as well as the measures needed for 2010.
“Progress is going to be measured, maybe at the back end of this week, on whether we are inching our way to a solution or not. If it proves necessary to take further action, it is more likely to happen in the context of the negotiations failing rather than anything else.”
Separately, Siptu president Jack O’Connor last night said that while the only viable way forward was by means of an agreement, he again linked any such deal to higher taxes for the wealthy.
“While we must grapple with difficult issues, there can be no basis for agreement except in the context of a measurable additional contribution from high-net-worth individuals and those on incomes of €100,000 plus per annum through taxation of one form or other – at least in the short to medium term,” he said.