Social partnership can work – but not if it becomes another magic ATM for public servants |
Is social partnership on the way back? The weather may be unseasonably chilly, but there’s a good chance of a long hot summer on the industrial relations front. Ambulance crews were out on the picket lines this week, and recent union conferences have been humming with a growing clamour for hefty pay increases.
The State’s 400,000 public servants reach the end of their current pay agreement when the final 1 per cent is paid from June 1st. Talks are expected to begin soon, though no invitations have issued as yet, so the two sides are staking out their positions. The unions will seek above-inflation pay rises, aside altogether from any increases based on productivity. Union sources also indicate that they are minded to seek catch-up increases, to compensate them for the failure to index tax bands in the last budget, as well as the surge in inflation since then.
In that context, pay demands are likely to be steep. The Department of Public Expenditure will lowball its initial offers. I’d be surprised if there aren’t more strike ballots.
There is another possibility shimmying into view in the middle distance, though. Kevin Callinan, boss of Fórsa, the largest public sector union, has tentatively raised the prospect of a renewal of some sort of social partnership deal between the Government, unions and other stakeholders, in which pay would only be one element of a broader national agreement.
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