THE STATE’S largest public sector trade union is to propose widespread rolling workplace stoppages as part of a significant escalation of the current dispute in the public service over pay cuts.
In a letter to members in recent days, Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said when the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions meets on March 8th, his union would support proposals for rolling work stoppages of limited duration across all sectors of the civil and public service.
He said this would involve a programme of short stoppages at different times in different workplaces on a regional basis.
Mr McLoone said that such an escalation “will probably precipitate a resumption of national negotiations either at the request of Government or at the behest of the established dispute resolution machinery [the Labour Relations Commission] to try and secure a negotiated solution”.
However, he said that the union’s central executive had decided that the current industrial action will not be suspended pending the outcome of any talks.
Senior union sources said last night that the proposal for work stoppages may not necessarily be adopted by the full Ictu committee as other options will also be considered.
Impact was already planning further escalation in the dispute from the beginning of March.
It said that from March 1st staff in the health sector will:
- Refuse to take on work associated with all vacant posts (not just those vacant since January 25th, 2010);
- Refuse to participate in work associated with the HSE's ''reconfiguration'' of services (ie, in the North-East, Mid-West and cancer services);
- Refuse to deal with all political representations including Dáil questions and FOI requests;
- Refuse to answer telephones, including mobile phones, for specific periods on a rotating basis.
In the education and local government areas, Impact will put in place a ban on dealing with work associated with vacant posts.
The members will withdraw co-operation from local authority PMDS, performance indicators and the core human resource system.
Impact also said that its ban on co-operation is to be extended to work experience programmes, Fás graduate programmes or other programmes of this nature.
It also said that no work is to be undertaken by members in relation to the imposition of additional VAT charges which arise from a recent court decision. And that the ban on co-operation should also cover any outsourcing proposals.
In his letter, Mr McLoone said that the objective of the unions in the current dispute were to:
- Restore public service pay scales;
- Protect the pensions of public service workers and pensioners;
- Resist compulsory redundancies;
- Seek the abolition of the pension levy;
- Seek an agreed approach to management proposals for outsourcing;
- Seek the implementation of pay increases agreed under the Towards 2016 transitional agreement.
The Government has said it wants to engage with trade unions on its plans for public service transformation, but it has ruled out any reversal of the pay cuts introduced in the budget.
On Tuesday Jack O’Connor of Siptu warned public service workers that they must be prepared to embark on an escalating campaign of industrial action.
- Separately, a ban on answering phones is to be put in place across the entire civil service from 1pm today. The move forms part of the current industrial action by lower paid civil servants, who are members of the CPSU union, in protest at pay cuts.