TRADE UNION leaders are to meet Taoiseach Brian Cowen today in a bid to persuade the Government to change aspects of the 1 per cent income levy announced in the Budget. Union leaders are strongly opposed to the levy being applied to low-paid workers and want the Government to reverse its decision in this area.
They have warned that the proposed national pay deal could be rejected by their members in ballots if they use their vote as a referendum on measures in the Budget.
Joe O'Flynn, general secretary of Siptu, the country's largest union, said yesterday the income levy would "seriously undermine the positive aspects of the new national agreement and the prospects of workers voting for it".
In an address to the union's Dublin regional conference, he said if the Government wanted to secure a new national agreement that working people could sign up to, it would have to ensure the Budget did not impact on society's most vulnerable people.
Siptu's national executive council postponed on Wednesday a decision on whether to recommend the proposed pay deal to members in a ballot until after the meeting between the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Mr Cowen on the levy issue.
Mr O'Flynn said that the levy flew in the face "of all our efforts over successive agreements to protect the lower paid". He urged the Government to change its decision on the levy to remove earnings up to the average industrial wage from the scope of the levy.
This would exempt all workers earning less than €38,000.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions proposed on Wednesday that those earning up to €11 per hour or up to €23,000 per year should be exempt.