Two sides in public pay dispute meet to discuss restarting talks as strike threat looms

Meetings intended to find a basis for restarting the public sector pay talks will continue on Wednesday after the steering group led by Workplace Relations Commission chairman Kevin Foley had a series of separate engagements with the two sides on Tuesday.

While both sides are hoping to avoid another national public service strike next Thursday, the executives of individual unions have started to authorise the stoppage. All three teachers’ unions did so by Monday evening and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation was set to follow suit late on Tuesday.

The latest engagements with the three-person group, which also includes Department of the Environment secretary general Oonagh Buckley and Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary Owen Reidy, followed the rejection last Friday of a pay offer from the Government worth 7.75 per cent over 2½ years. The union side believes this would be unlikely to match inflation and so could potentially leave their members facing a pay cut in real terms.

The offer included a 1.75 per cent increase, to take effect from November 1st (last Saturday), then an additional 1 per cent in April, August and November of next year as well as two further increases of one per cent in May and October of 2028.

A further 1 per cent would be paid to address local bargaining, a mechanism for addressing issues applying to some areas but not others.

The unions, however, expected this to amount 2 per cent, something they contend was provided for in the last agreement. In total, the cost of the deal was put at €3.5 billion.

The unions said the offer was not a credible one and questioned the projections on inflation which were used to justify it. It would amount to 3.75 per cent for this year, 3 per cent for 2027 and 2 per cent for 2028 if, as they contend it should be, local bargaining is excluded.

Another issue is the absence of a mechanism to boost the incomes of the least well paid, an issue for the two biggest unions involved in the dispute, Fórsa and Siptu, both of which have large numbers of poorly paid members in the public services, some earning barely more than the minimum wage.

Leaving the meeting on Monday, at which they were updated on the breakdown to the talks, officials of a number of unions expressed determination to pursue a better deal and on Tuesday the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, said the Government was trying “to find a solution”.

[ Public sector unions threaten second 24-hour national strike on November 12thOpens in new window ]

Asked about the prospect of a second strike, which would close schools, force the cancellation of thousands of hospital appointments and procedures while disrupting other services, Simon Harris said there were “nine days to go until the next strike action. Let’s all try and work to find a solution. Let’s find a way forward, and get that extra money into the pockets of our nurses, our teachers, our gardaí, our civil servants, and all of the other people who do a great job right across the public service.”

In the Dáil, meanwhile, Taoiseach Michéal Martin said the talks should be “allowed to continue” and insisted there is “no need for a strike” as the Opposition highlighted “inflation-busting” pay rises to State agency bosses.

Martin told the Dáil, “where there’s a will there’s a way to resolve it,” as he was accused by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald of showing a lack of respect that “forced public sector workers on to the picket line”.

McDonald said the Government had “dithered and delayed” by allowing the last pay agreement to expire before engaging with unions and refused “to deliver a fair pay deal”.