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ACTION STATIONS
14 March 2010 By Nicola Cooke
If a week is a long time in politics, it can be an equally long time in the union world. After baring their teeth last Monday with plans to escalate industrial action over pay cuts, the public sector unions secured the restart of talks with the government last Friday.
But whether the talks can reach an agreement that will pacify angry union members remains to be seen.
The public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) announced last Monday that schools, hospitals and other public services would be hit by half-day and full-day strikes over the coming weeks unless the government reversed pay cuts for its members.
By Thursday night, Taoiseach Brian Cowen had invited the unions back to negotiations with Brian Lenihan, the Minister for Finance, and John Gormley, leader of the Green Party.
Talks are being held at the Labour Relations Commission and chaired by Kieran Mulvey and Kevin Foley. Neither side has set strict preconditions for the talks and both have so far appeared to take a more conciliatory approach than in the aftermath of the breakdown of the last talks before Christmas.
The pay cuts imposed on public sector workers in the budget will form a central plank of the talks, while the government will press its ‘transformation agenda’ in the public sector.
While certain parts of the public sector - such as the Garda Síochána and Siptu-represented health workers - have said they will not pull back on plans to escalate industrial action, the government has requested a deferral of planned strikes and escalated actions. The threatened actions would seriously hamper work at garda stations and hospitals.
The unions will want to be seen to make progress at the talks and secure some concessions from the government ahead of individual union conferences over Easter. If they fail, escalated industrial action could be back on the agenda.
David Begg, general-secretary of Ictu, has indicated that there maybe room for discussion of a reversal of the pay cuts over a period. He said he believed there was a ‘reasonable chance of success’’ of the talks.
Peter McLoone, chairman of the Ictu public services committee, said there was ‘‘no bottom line for a deal’’ as far as his members were concerned.
Agreement between the unions and government on the transformation agenda - for more efficiencies in the public sector - will also be central to any possible agreement.
The government needs changes in order to reduce public spending, and will not cede a long-term restoration of the pay cuts without compromise from unions, according to political sources.
The first phase of the talks this week will involve determining if all unions are broadly in agreement with the transformation agenda, which was the case last December.
Once that is established, sectoral interests will be discussed and representatives from the various sectoral unions, such as health, will be asked to report to the LRC on their particular issues.
However, some union sources have warned that discontent has only been temporarily suspended with the resumption of talks. Many public and civil servants are aware of ‘‘being here before’’, according to Des Kavanagh, chairman of the Frontline Alliance, which is made up of gardaí, nurses, firemen, prison officers and ambulance personnel.
Kavanagh, who is also secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, said he was ‘‘very pleased talks have recommenced and that there is potential for resolution’’, but he also voiced misgivings.
‘‘We would be hugely concerned that we are not led on a merry dance, because last year, we engaged in talks twice, only for a breakdown at the 11th hour," Kavanagh said.
‘‘The government pulled the wool over our eyes then, so we have to be cautious."
Blair Horan, general secretary of the Civil and Public Service Union, said his union was still threatening selective strikes as part of a campaign of escalated industrial action.
‘‘We want a reversal of the pay cuts and pension levy imposed on our members," Horan said. ‘‘The government did not just have to cut public sector pay across the board. Why couldn’t they have raised taxes?"
He also questioned how much of the An Bord Snip Nua report, prepared by Colm McCarthy, had been implemented by the government. Members of the Garda Síochána cannot legally go on strike, but the Garda Representative Association (GRA) plans to ‘‘impact on management’’ through measures such as refusing to take calls on their mobiles or home phones when off duty.
As it is not a union, the group has not yet been approached to engage in any new negotiation process.
Neil Ward, a GRA spokesman, said that the association was angry at ‘‘once again being excluded from the talks’’. The association wanted to be able to directly engage with its employer - the Department of Justice - as happened in other European countries, Ward said.
‘‘We would welcome any positive developments, but we have seen this before," he said. ‘‘We still plan to go ahead with our escalated action on March 22, with members not using their personal equipment for work, or taking calls while off-duty. While we want a reversal of pay cuts for gardaí, that would not preclude us from talks. We want fair negotiations, and not a parallel discussion to everyone else."
One public sector source involved in the new negotiations said there was hope that the process could be done quickly ‘‘on the basis that the groundwork was done last year’’ before the talks collapsed.
‘‘The LRC wants to see if the unions are on the same page as they were last December, or if there’s been a drift from that," said the source. ‘‘Then they’ll take a view of pay-related issues. Unions have been asked not to escalate action while talks are under way, but ongoing action will remain.
A lot of our members are even less happy now than they were in December, but both sides wouldn’t be at the LRC unless they thought a solution was possible."
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