IRELAND
Ireland’s largest union says the Public Service pay agreement is “compromised but still standing” after the Government’s acceptance of proposals to resolve the recent nurses’ dispute.
Deputy General Secretary of the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), John King said that if his union’s members in the Public Service were not treated equally in relation to their concerns, it would be left with no alternative but to advance their “legitimate claims through strike and industrial action”.
Mr King said that in the proposed deal to end a series of strikes by nurses, Minister for Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe had accepted “there is a degree of flexibility within the Public Service Stability Agreement”.
“This flexibility will be used to advance the interests of SIPTU members in the Public Service,” Mr King said.
He said the extent to which the Public Service Agreement, which is scheduled to run until the end of 2020, had been compromised remained to be seen.
“The new situation presents an opportunity to ensure anomalies in the agreement’s implementation, such as the rolling out of job evaluation schemes, is effectively dealt with,” Mr King said.
“The methodologies used to produce the nursing proposals and the acceptance by the Department of Finance and Public Expenditure that they are within the parameters of the agreement means that they must be available to all other groups and grades of workers in the Public Service equally.”
He said SIPTU would consult with other trade unions affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions about how the current agreement could be improved “while maintaining its integrity”.
“Your union will then advance members’ claims with the Government,” Mr King said.
Proposals on the nurses’ dispute put forward by the Labour Court have been accepted by the Government and will be voted on by members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in the coming weeks.
The union’s executive backed the proposals, which would see nurses secure pay improvements through the extension of allowances and the introduction of a new scale in return for improved productivity.
Dublin, 22 February, 2019
