THE EXECUTIVE council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) is next week to consider an overall strategy of opposition to the Government’s new pension levy for public servants and to press again for a broad approach for economic recovery involving all sectors of society.
The move comes as individual unions announced protests against the levy. The country’s largest public sector union, Impact, is to organise a mass lobby of TDs’ constituency clinics on February 14th.
The union said that its branches in Dublin yesterday backed the plan in response to a “wave of anger” from workers.
The president of Siptu, the country’s largest union, Jack O’Connor, said that the task of persuading the authorities and employers to adopt a better, fairer approach “will require the most determined, united and sustained campaign the trade union movement has embarked upon in its history”.
He said that at the Ictu meeting next Wednesday, his union would be “promoting a number of initiatives with a view to agreeing a united strategy that will embrace the ideas prepared by other unions as well”.
“If it is to succeed the campaign must be conducted by the Ictu,” he said. Meanwhile, secondary teachers are threatening disruption to parent/teacher meetings and school inspections in the escalating row over the pension levy.
A meeting of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) standing committee has decided to seek a meeting with other teaching unions on a course of action.
The ASTI said members were furious that they would not now be paid for whole school planning, whole school evaluation, various meetings outside of school time and involvement with curriculum planning.
It accused the Government of reneging on its commitments to pay for these concessions. The union has signalled that its continued involvement in these initiatives could now be in doubt. ASTI is threatening a range of options up to and including industrial action.
Other teaching unions, the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), have also signalled their readiness to pursue all options.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) is to consider industrial action over proposed cutbacks planned by the HSE on top of the Government’s pension levy.
The Irish Times revealed last month that the HSE was considering cutbacks in current allowances and overtime for non-consultant doctors as part of an overall review of costs. Non-consultant doctors will also not be paid if they attend hospital courses or lectures and are unavailable to their employer. The IMO said that the health authority planned a devastating attack on doctors’ pay from later this month.
Meanwhile, in a memo to its members the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) said that effectively the pension levy was a pay cut by another name.
CPSU general secretary Blair Horan also said that the Government had indicated in the talks earlier this week that it was prepared to pay a 1 per cent rise to principal officers – and TDs who are linked to this grade – which was due under the benchmarking process.
He said this was extraordinary and meant that TDs would actually get a pay rise in advance of having to pay the new levy.
Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said “TDs should brace themselves for a wave of anger – not just at the high cost of the levy to ordinary workers – but also at the rank unfairness of the Government’s failure to insist that business and the wealthy should make a contribution”.
Unions had sought an overall deal under which the contribution by public sector staff would be balanced by other measures such as increased taxation for the better off, stronger regulation of the banks,curbs on executive pay, new job creation measures and protection for mortgage holders in difficulty.
Mr O’Connor said that it was still not too late to agree a social solidarity pact “to avoid catastrophe in our society”.