Public sector strike to resume next week
Public sector workers are set to go out on another 24 hour strike next week, Thursday 12 November, after talks with Government representatives on a new pay deal reached an "impasse".
Workers across the public sector will maintain pickets outside their workplaces, and rallies will take place in Dublin and other regional centres including Cork.
Regional committees of the Public Services Committee (PSC) of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) met yesterday, Wednesday 4 November to finalise plans for the strike action, and to organise the regional rallies.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday, Chair of the PSC and General Secretary of Fórsa Kevin Callinan said that unions needed the Government to hear its members. "They're struggling with the cost of living in terms of their day-to-day realities. They're struggling at work, often as the result of under-resourcing, often as the result of increased demand.
"Younger workers particularly are struggling with rental costs, with affording a mortgage - that was the message from the picket lines," he said.
Yesterday, union negotiators also continued to meet separately with a Government-appointed group - led by the chair of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Kevin Foley - to find a way around the present impasse.
Continued on page 6
Negotiations at the WRC were adjourned on Friday 30 October, where the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said that the Government failed to present a "credible offer".
Fórsa's Kevin Callinan said: It doesn't seem possible at this moment that it's going to be possible to reach an agreement that we can confidently put to our members in a ballot."
The PSC met on Monday 2 November and agreed that in the absence of a credible deal from Government, they would be taking another day of strike action.
Minister for Publin Expenditure Jack Chambers said that the decision was "extremely regrettable".
He said that the strike will cause significant disruption and that the Government is committed to agreeing on a deal that "gets the balance right by delivering a pay deal that is fair and credible to workers, and is fiscally responsible and sustainable for the country".
Public sector workers engaged in a one-day strike on Wednesday 14 October as part of the dispute. A second day of strike action, planned for 21 October, was called off to facilitate talks.
The dispute arose over what trade unions said was a failure by Government to present a credible basis for talks on a new public sector pay deal, following the expiry of the previous deal in July.