Union leader warns of ‘long and difficult dispute’ if breakthrough on pay not made

Union leader Kevin Callinan has warned the country could be facing a “long and difficult dispute” if a breakthrough is not reached in pay talks after 300,000 public servants went on strike on Wednesday.The Government has pointed to €1.2 billion set aside in the budget to cover the costs of an agreement increasing public servants’ pay, as part of a broader deal that includes reforms.However, unions have said they want the pay issue settled first, before discussing other matters.Callinan, who is general secretary of Fórsa and chairman of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ public service committee, said the provisions made by Government for public servants were not sufficient.READ MOREHe said the €1.2 billion was not just about pay but also has to cover public service pensions and carry-over costs.“At very best it would produce a 2.5 per cent increase, possibly even a little bit less than that next year, when inflation is running at 4.1 per cent,” he said.“So that’s not credible, because we’ve said it’s not just the duration of any agreement next year and beyond perhaps, it’s also this year, where the average increase for public service is 1.5 per cent, again with inflation at 4.1 per cent.“We’ve identified a very significant gap over the previous five years of at least 5 per cent between wages and prices in the public service.”Everybody’s struggling with the cost of living, he admitted, but he said it was “particularly severe” in the public service because “after the crash” around 2014-2015, average weekly earnings in the private sector began to improve.“But for the following six or seven years in the public service, the entire focus was on pay restoration of the pay cuts that had taken place in 2010,” he said. “So actually there has been a very significant divergence in average earnings in the public and private sector over the last decade or slightly more,” he told Newstalk’s Claire Byrne show.Callinan said that at no stage did the unions say they were unwilling to discuss reform such as performance reviews, but cost of living had to be top of the agenda.The protests on Wednesday had been “really important for democracy”, he said. “Because it was people working through structured organisations, representative bodies in accordance with the law, making their point respectfully.”Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was hopeful behind-the-scenes work in progress would lead unions to enter talks on a pay agreement.Public services were brought to a standstill by nationwide industrial action on Wednesday, and a second day of strikes is prepared for next week, putting pressure on the Coalition to get union leaders around the table before then.“We believe in a negotiated pathway to resolve this issue,” Martin said. “We want the national pay agreement, we have provided substantial funding for that.”Martin said there was a clear “platform” to begin talks. “I think the most important thing now is for both sides to get into the negotiating process,” the Fianna Fáil leader said.“Previous agreements were over 2½ years – three years in the past – so there’s a framework there,” he said. “I hope that the behind-the-scenes work that’s going on in terms of finding a proper process will materialise in a proper process that will yield an outcome that will be beneficial to public servants into the years ahead,” he said.