Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has signed an order which will provide for pay increases for about 300,000 staff in the public service as well as pension rises for retired personnel from early next year.
The pay and pension increases, which were agreed as part of the Lansdowne Road accord earlier this year, will come into effect from the beginning of January.
However under the new financial emergency legislation groups such as gardaí and second level teachers, who have rejected the new Lansdowne Road agreement on public service pay, could lose out on incremental pay rises due next year.
Under the new legislation trade unions and organisations which are considered to have repudiated a collective agreement would lose out on incremental increases until 2018. These increments can range from several hundred euro to more than €2,000 in some cases depending on where an employee is on the scale.
Teachers could also potentially lose out on the payment of about €1,600 in supervision and substitution payments which are due to be introduced in two phases from next September if they remain outside of the new agreement.
Speaking on Monday at the signing of the commencement order to give effect to the measures set out in the Lansdowne Road deal Mr Howlin said: “There is provision that people who are not part of a collective agreement will not benefit from a collective agreement. That would be fair and reasonable in most people’s mind. If you are not part of an agreement, you cannot simply have the good bits and not have the bad bits.”
The teaching unions, the ASTI and TUI and the Garda representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors have rejected the Lansdowne Road accord.
The Government considers the Lansdowne Road deal to be, in effect, an extension of the earlier Haddington Road agreement which is due to formally expire next June.
“We will honour the agreement in full and will take no precipitative action against anybody as long as they are protected by a negotiated agreement. But after that, obviously workers who sign up to an agreement and work the agreement it will be honoured in full by this Government. But if people are not part of an agreement they cannot pick and choose and get only the benefits”, the Minister said.
He said that organisations such as the ASTI and TUI would have to make their own call on the Lansdowne Road agreement but he sincerely hoped that ultimately all public servants would be covered by its provisions.
All public service staff, including those who are members of the teaching and Garda bodies which have rejected the Lansdowne Road deal will receive the new higher salaries to come into effect from January. It is additional incremental pay rises that could be under threat for gardaí and teachers.
The Lansdowne Road deal provides for most public service staff to receive a €2,000 rise in earnings between January 2016 and September 2017.
Mr Howlin said cuts made to the pensions of 80 per cent of retired public service staff will be restored over a 24-month period up to a value of just over €34,000.
The Minster said that 5 separate pieces of financial emergency legislation introduced over recent years contributed €2.2 billion annually to stabilising public finances.
“Now, thankfully, we are in a position to commence the unwinding of that financial emergency legislation. This Act illustrates that this Government is committed to the process of income restoration for serving and former public servants.
This package is aimed at delivering particularly for the lower paid. I am pleased to that we have been in a position to recruit once again into the public service with a particular focus on front line positions like gardaí, teachers and nurses.”
