A PUBLIC service union leader has called into question the bona fides of the Government and its senior negotiators in relation to "restructuring" deals under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW).
Against a background of mounting unrest involving groups as diverse as nurses, environmental health officers, civil servants and corporation manual workers, the general secretary of IMPACT, Mr Peter McLoone, has warned that there is a danger of talks breaking down in some areas.
IMPACT represents the bulk of workers in the health services and local authorities, as well as technical and professional staff in the Civil Service.
The primary reason for the current wave of unrest, Mr McLoone said, was the approach of management to pay talks on restructuring. "They come in and say, `We have a limit of 3 per cent of payroll costs and we're only here to talk about the distribution of that, rather than the merits of any claim'."
When the PCW was negotiated, two options had been outlined as routes by which productivity in the public service could be rewarded, Mr McLoone said. Option B allowed for straightforward, across the board increases of 3 per cent in return for a certain amount of productivity and flexibility from staff.
Option A, however, allowed for a more fundamental approach. Unfortunately, management seemed unable to react with the flexibility needed to make this approach work, he said.
"The formula being mooted in talks is no different from that negotiated with some Civil Service groups of workers. It is not tailored to the needs of each sector.
"Was the restructuring option under the PCW simply written to suit claims already under discussion in the Civil Service?" Mr McLoone asked. "If not, when, the restructuring clause was put into the PCW did Government Departments have any plans for restructuring? If they did, why are we 15 to 18 months into restructuring with talks breaking down all over the place?"
Another problem was the lack of negotiators, Mr McLoone said. In his own union there were 40 different categories of health worker, and so far there had been discussions involving only 14 or 15. Inadequate negotiating resources, on both sides, were being aggravated by the lack of progress in talks taking place.
In some areas, such as nursing, dissatisfaction is emerging in threats of industrial action; in others, such as environmental health, a work to rule has been going on since January because of lack of progress in talks.
Meanwhile the Civil and Public Service Union, which represents 10,000 clerical workers, is to hold a special delegate conference on February 24th because of a threatened breakdown in its restructuring talks.
Today the Civil and Public Service Union is to count the votes cast in a ballot on industrial action over the new embargo on public sector recruitment.