€500m in cuts loom as action still on the cards
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Wednesday December 02 2009
THE threat of a disruptive public sector strike is not over as frontline workers fear their earnings may be hit to copperfasten a deal to slash the state payroll.
Although the Government has accepted a measure to raise up to €800m through compulsory unpaid leave, there is still a significant gap to make up its €1.3bn target.
Prison officers, nurses, emergency staff, and gardai, many of whom are not represented at government talks, fear cuts to earnings that make up to a third of their wages -- including allowances, overtime and premium pay.
The biggest public sector union last night warned members in an urgent message that further cuts still have to be negotiated.
In a special bulletin, IMPACT, whose general secretary Peter McLoone is the chief negotiator at talks, indicated that more savings would be required to meet government demands.
"The government has said that the savings based on unpaid leave fall short of what is required and that this shortfall will need to be addressed," it said.
"This will form the basis of the discussions over the next few days, as well as the issue of public service transformation in the longer term."
The Irish Independent reported last week that one of the chief union negotiators, Tom Geraghty, told his members that along with compulsory unpaid leave, a review of certain allowances and the imposition of standard rate overtime may be tabled.
It is understood that on-call allowances have already been discussed at the talks, and discussions will focus on overtime rates in the coming days.
The HSE will insist that an agreement with unions on a 8am to 8pm day and weekend working for new recruits is now applied to all its 111,000 workers.
Last night, the leader of the 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance, Des Kavanagh, warned that workers would "act on their own" if there were infringements to allowances or premium pay.
"If they come up with a proposal that can only be borne by frontline workers, we will react aggressively," he warned.
"We may have to react by ourselves.
"Unpaid leave is the least offensive of what I've heard so far on the cuts.
"It is universally applied across the public sector and there is no differentiation between one group and another and there is the opportunity to make savings on travel and creche costs.
"The most offensive proposals are cuts to premiums and allowances or basic pay or annual leave."
Even the compulsory unpaid leave measure, although accepted in principle, is far from finalised for the major sections of the public sector, particularly health and education.
Caution
In an official statement the alliance welcomed progress but sounded a note of caution.
It said it "remains vigilant" as talks enter the next stage.
"It represents an important step forward in the search for a fair and equitable way of addressing the problems created by the current economic crisis for the delivery of public services", said General Secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation, Liam Doran, secretary of the alliance.
"We will be resuming negotiations in the morning (today) and will remain vigilant to ensure that the concerns of frontline workers delivering those services are addressed. There is still much work to be done.
"We will be meeting with our colleagues in the other frontline unions and staff associations, including those outside congress, later to review progress."
- Anne-Marie Walsh Industry Correspondent
Irish Independent
