ScribbleLive

IMPACT STATEMENT
Public service pay cuts will trigger strikes says IMPACT

Ireland’s largest public service union, IMPACT, today (Thursday) warned that it will respond with industrial action, including strikes, if the Government attempts to impose public service pay cuts, pension reductions or compulsory redundancies.

IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone said public service workers were not responsible for the fall in public revenue and would not be singled out to pay for a budgetary crisis caused by misguided policy and sharp practice in banking, finance and property speculation.

Mr McLoone rejected calls from the ESRI and others that public service pay should be cut again. “The inescapable fact is that, according to Department of Finance figures, a quarter of a million public servants earn less than €60,000 a year before tax, and before the 7.5% pension levy imposed in March. Of these, 55,000 are paid below €30,000 a year and 74,000 are paid between €30,000 and €40,000 a year. That’s a fraction of the salaries of those who tell us these modest earnings should be cut and cut again,” he said.

Mr McLoone said he had told the Government that, if jobs, pay and pensions were protected, public servants would deliver the reforms necessary to protect public services from a recession created by greed and recklessness in the top echelons of the private sector. “I have been equally clear that, if the Government attempts to impose compulsory redundancies, or cuts in pay and pensions, there will be a reaction which will include sustained, widespread and painful industrial action including strikes. I don’t believe there will be many, if any, winners if the Government takes this route, least of all among the people who – more than ever – depend on our public services,” he said.

Mr McLoone said there was a relentless campaign against public services and the people who deliver them. “Public servants’ pay has already been cut by over 7.5% this year, on top of the extra taxes and levies introduced in the last two budgets. But the unaccountable critics of public servants, in business, politics, universities and the media, are back again just four months later demanding more. We are going to make a stand if the Government adopts these policies,” said Mr McLoone.

Looking for people to read and summarise the Dept of Environment cuts for @irishelection page 90 of volume two #snip