THE UNION representing lower-paid civil servants has said it wants the issue of reimbursing public service staff for pay cuts introduced over the last year or so to be examined in the autumn.
One of the key selling points of the Croke Park agreement on public service pay and reform for many workers was the potential it held out that staff could get money back from the savings which were generated.
General secretary of the Civil Public and Services Union Blair Horan said last night that while he never expected the issue of reimbursement of money to staff to be addressed in the first official review of the Croke Park deal, which was considered by Cabinet yesterday, the issue had not gone away.
Mr Horan said he wanted the issue to be looked at later in the year.
It is understood the review of the agreement does not deal specifically with the issue of reimbursing money to staff as this will be a matter for the Government.
The review report, which was drawn up by the national body charged with overseeing the implementation of the agreement, is to be published today by Minster for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin.
The Government is also expected to release an independent verification report of savings made in three specific areas of the public service.
The Irish Times reported earlier this week that the new review will state that a total of €289 million in cash savings have been generated since the Croke Park agreement was put in place a year ago.
The bulk of these savings came as a result of the reduction in the numbers employed in the public service by 5,349 since the deal was introduced.
The report will also state that about €300 million in savings were made on non-pay expenditure. This included about €120 million in the health service and over €80 million in local authorities.
The report will point to about €80 million in costs avoided which would have been incurred if previous work practices had remained in place. This included money saved on new prison officer rosters.
