PAY AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Special report — Who earns what

THREE things can’t be hidden for long, goes the old saying — the sun, the moon and the truth. The truth doesn’t always get a warm welcome when it does put in an appearance, however, as Kevin Duffy, chair of the recently established Public Service Pay Commission, discovered last week when he dared to argue that planned Garda strikes were “unlawful by any standards” and tantamount to “mutiny”.

The former bricklayer and assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is hardly one of the usual suspects when it comes to castigating public sector workers, and Duffy did receive some support even from trade unionists; but the guards themselves reacted with fury.

The Garda Representative Association quickly said it had no confidence in Duffy, though as Professor Michael Doherty of Maynooth’s law department pointed out on RTE’s Morning

Ireland: “Gardaí were issued with an order and they were going to disobey that order.” If it looks, quacks and mutinies like a duck, what else can it be?

Under pressure on Friday, Duffy gracefully retracted the “mutiny” remark and accepted that the guards had received legal advice that their strike would be legal; the GRA issued a statement saying it noted the comments but was reserving judgment pending further discussions.

But the stand-off is less interesting in terms of who’s right as it is a reflection of the ill-tempered passions involved in the current round of public sector pay demands. The police, it seems, can threaten to bring the country to a standstill, but no one must criticise them for it or they’ll throw their toys out of the pram.

This inability of one side to speak plainly is compounded by a dearth of reliable information all round. The commission of which Kevin Duffy is in charge was set up last month with the aim of producing ‘evidence-based objective analysis’ of the issues around public sector pay. The plan is that it will release its findings before next summer.

Its establishment may well be a delaying tactic by the Government, but it’s hard to argue with the need for ‘evidence-based objective analysis’. Facts are hard to come by on pay rates, and that absence often seems deliberate.

In the battle for hearts and minds, union representatives have a vested interest in pushing worst-case scenarios, highlighting the pay of new entrants in each profession, who are, by definition, on the lowest rung of any pay scale, while downplaying the much more generous salaries of those who’ve been in the job a while and proved their worth.

That’s why figures are so important. They allow a direct comparison between those in the public and private sectors, in order to see whether the stereotype of the overworked, underpaid public servant bears any relation to reality.

The first thing obvious from these latest figures obtained by the Sunday Independent is that the guards do have some cause to be peeved. New recruits earn less in their first year than train guards and ticket checkers on Irish Rail, which hardly carries the same level of responsibility.

On the other hand, the incremental scale ensures that Garda recruits will earn €35,849 after five years and €42,138 after eight years in uniform, with further increments after 13 and 19 years.

That’s not to mention a variety of allowances and, crucially, overtime, meaning real wages can be considerably higher. There is also the chance of promotion for those who show aptitude.

Is this really iniquitous, as Garda spokespeople regularly attest? By the same token, what is a reasonable expectation for Dublin Bus drivers, who currently earn a salary of €34,076 for a four-day week after six years?

There’s a similar pattern at Irish Rail where clerical officers can annually pocket just shy of €50,000 having reached higher scales, while in hospitals staff nurses, chiropodists and occupational therapists with ten years experience can take home €39,952. To receive an equivalent salary in the UK would require reaching band six of the NHS pay scale, which applies to those with additional specialist or leadership responsibilities.

Then there are the various allowances, some of which almost seem to have been designed to be deliberately silly. Only basic salary rates ever seem to be quoted by union representatives, which in no way reflect actual pay.

None of these amounts are huge by any standards. The cost of living is high in Ireland; these salaries don’t go far. But they do burst the belief that public sector workers have been disproportionately hard hit by the recession or that they are suffering more than workers in the private sector. A decade into the downturn, the Central Statistics Office says wages are still 20pc higher in the public sector — a whopping €273 a week. Hardly negligible.

It stands to reason that any further increases in public sector pay for what the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association on Friday called the “lucky one sixth of the workforce” whose wages are paid by the Government will only increase that wealth gap.

Thousands of self-employed workers, who often work long hours with few or no holidays, don’t even have a basic social welfare safety net to fall back on in hard times.

If equal pay for men and women is a pressing injustice, why is the gap between those in the public and private sectors not equally of concern? When was the last time

Prime Time did a hard-hitting analysis of the pay of workers in the hotel and restaurant industry, who are the lowest paid of all? When did Claire

Byrne Live last host a debate for those in the struggling retail sector? Teachers, nurses and guards all have their say, but entire swathes of the private sector are voiceless.

Try asking them if public sector pay rates are too low. That’s hard, though, when you literally don’t know any of them and never make the effort to get out and listen.

In Ireland, policymakers and opinion formers know plenty of people who’ve spent a lifetime in the public sector. Other workers, not so much. For many, the people who serve their lattes, clean their toilets, mind their kids, mend their cars and pick their fruit are as invisible to them as the Asian children who put together their smartphones.

The economic realities of life in a competitive world of production, distribution and exchange are a greater mystery still. They know this world exists, it’s just not something they ever think about.

It’s not purely about pay either. It’s about all the benefits that come with having a public sector job, from pensions to sick pay, right through to the most priceless asset of all — job security. That means being able to plan a future, right through to retirement. It’s a luxury of which private sector workers can only dream.

They live with job insecurity every working day, and it’s only going to increase if they’re squeezed further to fund unsustainable wage rises for people who already have more than they do. This rightly fuels resentment. The divide is poised to explode unless some basic fairness is put back into the debate.

The rot starts with that very phrase ‘public service’. All workers provide a service, those in manufacturing every bit as much as those in the civil service. The corollary of ‘private sector’ is ‘public sector’, but even the Government fell into the trap when calling it the Public Service Pay Commission. This makes certain jobs seem innately virtuous, and those who take them on angels for not sullying themselves with filthy commerce.

The title contains a plea for special treatment. Resisting their demands becomes dishonourable by definition.

The problem is that pay rises may or may not make people feel relatively better off, but it all has to be paid for in absolute terms, and who’s going to foot the bill? Certainly not public sector workers. To be blunt, they are the bill.

‘Swathes of private sector workers are voiceless’