A system for considering cases for regrading in the public sector will need to be included in the forthcoming national pay agreement, according to John King, Siptu’s deputy general secretary.
Mr King said the Government had “run out of road” in relation to the growing number of civil and public servants who believe their grades no longer reflect the way their day-to-day work has evolved over the past decade or more.
Mr King said the growing frustration felt by a number of groups within the public sector meant such a system would be a key part of the union’s agenda when talks on a new national public sector pay deal got under way, most likely in September.
Members of one group, retained firefighters, are currently engaged in strike action over a long-standing claim for improved pay and rostering that would allow for them not to be on call so much of the time. A number of them confronted the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, in Dunleer last week in relation to their dispute.
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Mr King, who is the deputy general secretary of Siptu with responsibility for public sector members, said it was disappointing that more was not being done to resolve the strike and said the plight of the roughly 2,000 workers highlighted a wider issue for public and civil servants who believed they had very particular grievances but had been told they could be addressed under recent deals.
After intervening in the firefighters’s dispute, the Labour Court did recommend a one-off deal for the workers which was then rejected in a ballot but most groups struggled even to have their arguments considered, Mr King said.
About 10,000 members of Fórsa working in local authorities are currently involved in a dispute relating to their demand for a grading assessment process and he believes the Government can no longer avoid the issue.
“Over the last couple of years we have seen increasing frustration among public sector workers in various different grades with the fact that they don’t have a mechanism or process to be able to engage on their grade-related specific issues. We think any new public service agreement is going to have to provide for such a mechanism,” said Mr King.
“It’s not necessarily about pay, although pay is a critical element. There are issues around responsibility and technology and around people being given the correct supports and training to be able to do the jobs that they are being asked to do.
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“It’s a difficult issue for people because they are accepting change, they are showing they are adaptable. They want to get on with their jobs, but there is no mechanism for any proper assessment of the way their jobs have changed. I think we’re out of road on that. We need a process.”
Mr King said other issues were likely to feature in the talks on a new national pay agreement, including what he described as the “staggering” levels of agency workers being used in the health service. However, wage rises sufficiently substantial to enable workers better cope with current levels of inflation would be a central demand for the union side.
“The pay piece is obviously key,” he said. “We need a general pay increase that is going to enable public servants to survive in what continues to be a cost-of-living crisis.”
He said the wage increases secured in recent agreements had not kept pace with inflation.
