TRADE UNIONS are to ballot members for a campaign of industrial action beginning with a one-day strike at the end of March.
The strikes would take place across the public sector and in significant parts of the private sector where employers have not paid the national wage deal agreed last year or negotiated an alternative.
The stoppages are likely to go ahead if the Government does not engage with trade unions on a new economic recovery programme. Unions will begin balloting members on Monday. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) yesterday offered to negotiate a three-year stabilisation plan based on the principles set out in its own programme for economic recovery.
Such a plan would not only include pay but also taxation, competitiveness, the pensions crisis and the new pension levy for public sector staff.
Employers’ group Ibec last night said that it was ready to engage with Government and the Ictu on a proposal to bring stability to the public finances, address the banking crisis and put in place supports for enterprise which underpin employment. However, it expressed disappointment at the prospect of strike action which it said would “undermine the national interest”.
If supported in the ballots, the first strike would take place on March 30th and would be likely to close Government offices and agencies and affect schools and other State services. Union leaders said that essential services such as hospitals would be protected. The Ictu said that further strikes would follow if a pact with the Government was not secured.
The impact of any action in the private sector would depend on whether the national agreement terms had been met, the degree of unionisation in particular firms and ballot results.
The dispute could hit the building sector where feelings are running high over the move by the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) to seek a 10 per cent pay cut.
Ictu general secretary David Begg said that at present union members were not covered by a national pay agreement as the CIF did not enter into the deal.
“We have decided that if we cannot persuade people with this latest offer of a three-year stabilisation plan that we will have to take action to essentially defend pay and conditions of employment. We have given an authorisation to unions to conduct a ballot of industrial action for members up to and including full strike action,” he said.
Mr Begg described the plan for the one-day strike as a back-stop or a contingency and said that he hoped that the unions would not have to go down that road.
However, he added that if the trade unions had not managed to persuade the Government to engage with them by March 30th, then “we are in a doomsday situation”.
Mr Begg said that the proposed three-year deal would send out positive signals internationally. Ictu did not give figures on the number of private sector companies that could take part in the industrial action.