Government’s €3bn of fer ‘disappoints’ public sector unions
PUBLIC Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has said the Government’s offer to public sector workers is worth almost €3billion and would equate to a pay rise of up to 12% for some civil servants.
Union officials have expressed ‘disappointment’ with the Government’s offer, after talks ended without agreement early yesterday morning.
The negotiations were adjourned between 2am and 3am to allow for a ‘period of reflection’, an official said.
Union representatives said they are ready to begin balloting members on industrial action, following the finalisation of wording yesterday.
Mr Donohoe said the multibillion-euro offer would mean an average 8.5% increase for public sector workers over two-and-a-half years, with the lowest paid receiving up to 12%. He said the offer was ‘significant’ and ‘very fair’.
The general secretary of the Fórsa union, Kevin Callinan, said: ‘I’m afraid to say that the opening offer from the Government side was extremely disappointing and the fact remains that there’s a substantial gap between the parties in relation to pay.’
Mr Donohoe said he was ‘disappointed’ there had not been an agreed outcome.
He said he gave an early commitment, ‘in good faith’, to repeal remaining Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) legislation in an effort to generate goodwill and remove any barriers to achieving a multiannual agreement.
He called on trade unions and associations to take a ‘period to reflect’ and said the Government remains available to enter into further discussions ‘at the appropriate time’. Mr Donohoe said he had also given a commitment to work on ‘smaller industrial relations issues’ that are important to the unions.
The officers of the Public Services Committee (PSC) said the offer illustrated a lack of preparedness from the Government to complete a ‘sustainable multi-year pay deal’.
Mr Callinan said the offer did not meet the cumulative gap between wages and inflation, which the PSC puts at 19% over the last three years.
He said the initial pay offer was 7% with 1.5% payable in March this year, adding that this would fail in any ballot of members. ‘The Government has effectively undermined its own approach to negotiating a multi-year public sector pay agreement in a number of ways,’ he said.
John King of Siptu said: ‘The initial offering – which (before deductions) would have put little more than an average of just €5 per week in the wages of low-income public sector workers, and €10 per week in the wages of those on middle incomes in the first year – failed the basic test of creating a robust agreement in the face of a continuing cost-ofliving crisis.’
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, said: ‘The tabling of that pay offer followed months of delay before the process of negotiations got under way last year, painfully slow progress over the course of 11 meetings in November and December, consequently allowing the previous agreement to lapse at the end of 2023.
‘All of these factors really undermine the credibility of the Government’s approach to doing a deal.’
She added that ‘as we adjourned’ yesterday, a ‘significant gap on pay measures between both sides remains’.
John Boyle, of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, said: ‘We remain focused on returning to the negotiations to ensure we can complete a deal that is robust enough to endure the 30month period envisaged.’
While union officials said it may be several days before talks are reconvened, Minister Donohoe stated that it was up to the experts at the Workplace Relations Commission to set a date.
‘Undermined its own approach’