Public service staff will be asked for more reforms, efficiency measures and changes to work practices as part of any new pay agreement, the Government has signalled.
Speaking at an industrial relations conference on Thursday, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe warned exchequer resources remained "constrained" and the Government could not make "reckless fiscal choices".
He said while the Government wanted to negotiate a collective agreement with public service groups to succeed the Lansdowne Road accord, he had “to sound a note of realism about what is possible from a fiscal perspective”.
The Minister said previously-agreed reform and efficiency measures such as the additional unpaid hours which staff are obliged to work remained critical to meet increased demands for frontline services.
He said while some may argue the urgency in relation to having such reform and efficiency measures in place had passed, this was not the case.
“Because the only way we can respond to both increased demands on our public services and the expectations of public servants to see their pay start to grow again -- within the limited room for manoeuvre we have on the public finances -- is to look again how we can further improve on productivity and efficiency gains in the public service.”
“This means building on the structural reforms and work practice changes introduced under previous agreements.”
Three-year plan
Mr Donohoe said his department was drawing up a new three-year public service reform plan.
“We will be looking to consolidate the good progress made to date and to set out the further steps that need to be taken to realise our goals around ensuring we deliver top quality public services in a cost effective way”, he told the Industrial Relations News annual conference in UCD.
The Government plans to begin talks with public service unions on a successor to the Lansdowne Road accord in the summer following the report of the Public Service Pay Commission.
As part of this process a number of unions are seeking to terminate the existing productivity measures in place such as the requirement to work additional unpaid hours.
The Minister said a collective agreement encompassing public service pay and further reforms “will be key to ensuring that we grow expenditure and pay in an affordable and sustainable strategic way”.
“It will allow Government to strike a balance between affordable pay increases for public servants and other social priorities including improvements in housing and healthcare.”
Mr Donohoe acknowledged there were heightened expectations on the part of public service staff regarding pay.
He said rising expectations were an indicator of success as it showed people were confident things were moving in the right direction.
However, he warned that there was a need to “temper these expectations or we will end up right back where we began”.
The Minister argued that a collective inclusive approach to dealing with public service pay was the best way to ensure all groups of staff were treated equally.
“Step outside of that framework and you are stepping into a ’I win - you lose’ negative and perverse type of situation in which there will inevitably be more losers than winners.”
“And one group guaranteed to be losers in that ‘win-lose’ scenario is the public who cannot afford to be used as pawns in this way.”
