The Government is increasingly resigned to Wednesday’s public-sector strike going ahead after an attempt by Jack Chambers to initiate talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was swiftly rebuffed by union leaders on Monday.
Chambers, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, is to brief Cabinet colleagues on what are described as “substantial efforts” to engage with union leaders and emphasise that the Government side remains ready to attend talks at the WRC in the hope of averting the strike.
Both sides, however, seem to regard the first scheduled one-day stoppage as almost inevitable at this stage.
The strike will see more than 300,000 public-sector workers, including healthcare workers, teachers, courts staff and many others, undertake a 24-hour work stoppage, although essential services will be maintained.
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An independent mediator may be approached by the Government side in the hope of getting negotiations started, but sources suggested this is unlikely to happen until one or even both of the single-day stoppages scheduled for the next eight days have taken place and there is more pressure from the public for a solution to be found.
On Monday, Chambers said in a letter to the officers of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions public services committee, which is chaired by Fórsa’s Kevin Callinan, that the strike would cause “great disruption to the public, especially the most vulnerable in our society, and also result in an avoidable loss of earnings for public servants”.
But, he wrote, an agreement could be reached without delay if both parties were willing to enter an “intensive process of engagement as soon as possible”.
The Minister again described the provision of €1.2 billion for public-sector pay in the budget as “significant” and said “pay issues can and should be discussed as a priority alongside other matters as part of the pay talks”. This has been a key sticking point in getting talks started so far.
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In a response sent less than an hour after the proposal had been received, however, Callinan and the other officers said the union side “cannot see how it represents any change in your stated position”.
There was no reference to the suggested meeting at the WRC, but he said: “We believe that the Government needs to respond to the seriousness of the situation by acknowledging that the specific pay issues that we have identified will be addressed in any talks that may be arranged.”
The letter also accused the Government side of having failed to honour commitments made in the national agreement that expired in June. Two sources involved in the process on the Government side acknowledged the relationship between Chambers’s department and unions had broken down.
The unions have indicated they will seek increases to address what they say was an earlier gap between pay rises and inflation of between 5 and 7 per cent in addition to a settlement for the second half of this year and an undertaking that their members’ wages will not be undermined by the cost of living increasing over the term of any deal.
The €1.2 billion, they contended, is not nearly enough to address those demands. The Government argues the budget provided a range of cost-of-living measures in addition to the funding explicitly set aside to meet increased pay.
Despite this, Callinan told Chambers: “We regret to say that your letter doesn’t provide a basis for the strike action scheduled for Wednesday to be postponed.”
