Unions to consider strike escalation after talks fall on pay differences

Public sector unions will consider plans for industrial action beyond the one-day strike scheduled for next week when they meet on Monday, after talks on a new pay deal with the Government were suspended and with the two sides said to be “miles” apart on pay.

An attempt to get the talks process going again will be made on Tuesday, but with lead union negotiator Kevin Callinan saying the Government had still to make “a credible offer” on pay, there was little confidence on the union side of a resumption over the weekend.

Government sources were more positive about the situation. On Sunday they indicated that back-channel contacts were continuing over the weekend.

One senior Government source involved in the process said a breakdown in the talks before a resumption was a pattern seen in previous negotiations and was not unexpected. A full resumption of talks could happen later in the week after the steering group chaired by Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) chair Kevin Foley becomes involved again.

That group, which includes Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) general secretary Owen Reidy and Department of Environment secretary general Oonagh Buckey, is to meet both sides separately on Tuesday to see if differences can potentially be bridged.

The Government believes they can, with sources suggesting it has made a reasonable and realistic offer on pay, while other issues – including local bargaining clauses – are “99 per cent” there.

Ictu’s public sector committee will meet on Monday so the 15 affiliates not directly represented in the talks process can be updated on what the four who are have described as a “pretty significant impasse”.

The issue of escalation beyond the second planned one-day national strike is also expected to be on the agenda, with the potential for further school closures and disruption of health and other services in the run-up to Christmas if the process intended to bring about a new national deal cannot be rebooted.

Many of the constituent unions will then hold national executive meetings to discuss any new proposals for action and, it is anticipated, endorse them.

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The next strike day, scheduled for Wednesday week, is set to feature marches by union members in Dublin and other big regional urban centres.

Aside from the impact on schools, healthcare and other public services, a strike on November 11th would disrupt preparations for meetings of European leaders due to take place on Thursday 12th and Friday 13th as part of Ireland’s EU presidency.

Hopes of that being avoided now appear to rest with the three-person steering group.

The union side said they would engage with it, but Callinan said on Friday they had been clear about what was required to do a deal. What had been put on the table so far, he said, was “a long way” from what would be necessary for their more than 300,000 members to vote in favour of acceptance. If a deal was agreed, the unions must then ballot their members on it, with acceptance of an inevitable compromise not guaranteed.

The Government side would face no such hurdle, but one senior figure cautioned that a deal “has to be affordable, strike or no strike”.

More detail of the latest respective positions may become clearer over the course of Monday’s meetings. However, the unions – which repeatedly indicated they were seeking a deal that would provide for pay increases in excess of inflation over its duration – appear not to believe the Government offer would match it.