26/10/2022 Comments are off SIPTU Health Admin
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SIPTU Deputy General Secretary says public sector funding faces 5% cut by 2025

Funding for the public sector faces a 5% cut in real terms by 2025, which will result in a decline in services, SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, John King, told the SIPTU Health Division Biennial Delegate Conference in Waterford today (Wednesday, 26th October).

Addressing more than 200 delegates, King said: “The figures would indicate that nominal expenditure on public services will increase by 6% between 2022 to 2025. However, when inflation is factored in, spending falls by 3%, and when population growth is also factored in, spending actually falls by 5%.
“These outcomes are about the implementation of political choices. The effect is not good for public servants and it is not good for wider society. They will lead to poorer services for the less well-off and the marginalised in key areas of public service provision.”

King added: “When we compare Budget 2023 spending on public services to our European Union peer group we find another key result, that is that Ireland is at the bottom of the table when it comes to public service spending. We need to significantly increase our public spending to achieve the quality of service which the citizens in our EU peer group enjoys.”

King also highlighted the failure of the Government to adequately fund organisations that provide services on behalf of the HSE but are not formally part of the public sector.

He said: “The denial of funding for these community and Section 39 organisations for pay increases for their staff, who provide essential public services to our most vulnerable and marginalised citizens and communities, will have profound negative consequences for our society.”

He added: “Last week in the Dáil, in response to a motion submitted by the Labour Party, two senior government Ministers acknowledged that these workers not having a pay rise for 14 years is not acceptable, particularly in light of the cost-of-living crisis that all workers are suffering.

“These workers must not be left out of the ‘whole of government’ response to this inflationary crisis, and I am calling on those Ministers to act now on their words and put in the necessary process to address this issue once and for all.”

The SIPTU Health Division Biennial Delegate Conference in the Tower Hotel, The Mall, Waterford City concludes this evening.

30/08/2022 Comments are off SIPTU Health Admin
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WRC-proposed public pay package skewed to lower paid

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) this morning (Tuesday) proposed a public service pay package aimed at resolving differences between public service unions and Government officials following over 19 hours of talks. The ICTU Public Services Committee (PSC) subsequently met to consider the proposal at 10.00am today.

The package would see pay increases of 3% with effect from 2nd February 2022, 2% from 1st March 2023 and 1.5% or €750 (whichever is the greater) from 1st October 2023. This is in addition to 1% or €500, whichever is greater, due at the beginning of October 2022.

The minimum payment of €750 a year from next October means the package would be worth 8% to a worker earning €25,000 a year and 7% to a person on €37,500 a year.

This morning’s PSC meeting decided that individual unions should now consult members, through ballots and other means, on the package in advance of a collective decision on whether to accept or reject the package. This will take place at a further PSC meeting on Friday 7th October, where voting will be weighted to reflect the number of public servants that each union represents.

PSC chairperson Kevin Callinan said he believed the outcome of this long process was the best that could currently be achieved through negotiations.

“We’ll now be explaining this package to union members, who will have the final say in ballots. Neither side has achieved all it sought, but this package is a significant improvement on the pay terms of Building Momentum, and it is worth more to those who need it most. This underlines the importance of the unions’ decision to invoke the review clause in the current agreement.

“Over the past weeks, Minister McGrath and his Government colleagues have repeatedly promised to supplement pay measures with other cost-of-living supports through the Labour-Employer Economic Forum (LEEF) process and the forthcoming Budget. Workers will now expect delivery on that promise. A Government failure to deliver will certainly impact the ballots that will shortly get underway,” he said.

PSC secretary John King said the PSC was also recommending that planned industrial action ballots be suspended while unions consult on the WRC package.

The pay talks resumed at noon yesterday (29th August) after a ten-week hiatus during which the Government said it was reflecting on its position. Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath said his revised offer was final, although union negotiators held out for an improved sum for lower paid public servants.
The total 2022-2023 increases due under the WRC-proposed package would be:

1) 2nd February 2022 3%

2) 1st October 2022 1% or €500 a year (whichever is the greater). Note, this was agreed under the original Building Momentum agreement

3) 1st March 2023 2%

4) 1st October 2023 1.5% or €750 (whichever is the greater).

These are in addition to Building Momentum increases of 1% or €500 a year (whichever is greater in October 2021, plus a sectoral bargaining fund worth 1% of annualised basic pay from 1st February 2022.

John King also said that the Union would holding a meeting of its National Executive Council as part of a process to commence consultations with members immediately, in advance of commencing a ballot vote for acceptance or rejection of the proposal’s.

24/08/2022 Comments are off SIPTU Health Admin
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Public Service Pay Campaign Update – 24th August 2022

SIPTU Officials representing members in the Health, Local Government, Education and State-Related Sectors attended a meeting in Liberty Hall on Wednesday, 24th August. At this meeting they were updated on the union’s Public Service Pay Campaign and considered the invitation from the Workplace Relations Commission to attend a resumption of talks on Public Service pay beginning next Monday, 29th August.

Following the meeting, SIPTU Deputy General Secretary and Secretary of the Public Services Committee of Congress, John King, said that union representatives will attend the upcoming talks as part of the ICTU delegation. He said the focus of these talks will be to conclude a review of the pay terms of the ‘Building Momentum’ Public Service Pay Agreement, which has been sought by SIPTU and other unions since March 2022.

SIPTU, as part of the Public Services Committee of ICTU, is currently consulting with its members and preparing for ballots on industrial and strike action. This is part of a campaign to secure a review of the pay terms of the ‘Building Momentum’ agreement which adequately compensate workers for the loss in the value of their earnings which has accrued due to the cost of living crisis and high rate of inflation.

King said the consultation process with SIPTU members in the Public Service will continue and in the absence of a successful outcome to the talks, which are recommencing on Monday, that the union will begin balloting members on industrial and strike action in early September.

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