Talks taking place between union leaders and Government representatives over the coming fortnight will, to a large extent, determine whether there will be large-scale industrial relations trouble in the public service in the new year.
However, even if the Government changes its current position and agrees to enter negotiations on a replacement for the Lansdowne Road pay accord in January or early February – as unions want – there could still be industrial action in some sectors on other issues.
The Lansdowne Road agreement began the process of pay restoration for nearly 300,000 State employees and was scheduled to run until September 2018 at a cost of about €900 million in total.
However, the recent Labour Court recommendation, which proposed pay increases for gardaí of about €4,000 on average, threw the proverbial cat among the pigeons.
Gardaí had rejected Lansdowne Road and in the view of many other public service unions, the Government, by accepting the Labour Court recommendation, agreed to give more money to a group which was outside the accord than was available to those who had accepted it.
The position of many public service unions is that their members cannot be expected to wait until September 2018 for the next phase of payments under Lansdowne Road – €1,000 for most staff – while gardaí are set to receive additional money from next January.
Government Ministers have implicitly acknowledged that the Labour Court recommendation has “consequences” for all in the public service.
Potential flashpoints
However, the Government’s public position remains that talks with trade unions should follow the report of the new Public Service Pay Commission, which is expected after Easter 2017. The outcome of these negotiations should then feed into the budget next October for payment in 2018.
The unions want talks on a successor to Lansdowne Road to commence in January or February, with their members receiving additional money next year over and above the amounts due under the existing agreement.
It was in a bid to put pressure on the Government to agree to this timetable that Siptu executive council yesterday authorised its groups in the public service to ballot for industrial action. At the same time it asked them to defer balloting for a fortnight.
However, leaving aside this “macro” picture, there are a host of other potential industrial relations flashpoints in the broader public sector.
However, leaving aside this “macro” picture, there are a host of other potential industrial relations flashpoints in the broader public sector.
While the Labour Court recommendation on Garda pay has caused consternation among other unions, it should not be forgotten that this dispute has not yet been resolved. The planned Garda strikes have been suspended for the moment.
The 10,500 members of the Garda Representative Association and the 2,000 members of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors are currently balloting on the Labour Court proposals.
Nightmare scenario
A result is due in early December. Obviously, a rejection of the new proposals would place the Government in a nightmare scenario of facing potential renewed threats of industrial action by gardaí while at the same time having provoked unrest in the broader public service in its attempts to resolve the Garda row.
Separately, the disputes involving the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland, which lead to the closure of hundreds of second-level schools in recent weeks, are also not formally over.
Talks are under way with the Teachers’ Conciliation Council to find a resolution to the rows over new entrant pay and the withdrawal of payment for supervision and substitution duties arising from the union’s refusal to work the additional unpaid 33 “Croke Park hours” any longer.
The talks are due to continue until the end of November.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) is also balloting its members for industrial action over staffing levels and working conditions.
It wants the introduction of special financial incentives to encourage the recruitment of new personnel to the health service – in the face of superior terms in the private sector in Ireland and from hospitals abroad – and to persuade existing staff to remain in place.
Work stoppages
In a separate track, the INMO is also backing faster pay restoration across the public service in general.
The ballot is due to be completed in mid-December and if carried, the INMO could begin industrial action to close hospital beds so that services on offer matched the staffing levels available. This would have implications for waiting lists and emergency department overcrowding.
Work stoppages by nurses could also follow early next year.
Non-consultant hospital doctors, who are represented by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), are to vote on strike action after the Government pulled out of talks aimed at restoring a €3,000 allowance abolished for new employees in 2012.
The Government had agreed to enter an intensive talks process as part of an out-of-court settlement to resolve a High Court action on the issue.
However, last week, health service officials said their mandate to negotiate had been withdrawn and the allowance issue would now have to be addressed as part of the Government’s overall new Public Service Pay Commission.
Any industrial action by doctors is unlikely to take place before Christmas.
In the broader public service, the potential for industrial relations trouble remains at Bus Éireann. Management has ruled out pay increases due to financial pressures facing the company and wants radical restructuring of its commercial Expressway service and at Iarnród Éireann.
