Irish trade unions have succeeded in bringing forward an annual €1,000 pay rise for public service workers from September to April 2017, and opening the way for further negotiations.
Ireland's largest public service union, IMPACT, and other trade unions insisted that pay rises must be speeded up to keep pace with improvements in the Irish economy and public finances.
Unions are pressing for wages to rise rapidly to pre-crisis levels. Under austerity in 2009, government-imposed cuts of up to 15% created anger and hardship among public sector workers. The existing Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA), signed in mid-2015, was set to run until September 2018, but unions have managed to bring talks forward so that further wage increases can be included in the government’s 2018 budget, to be announced in October.
“IMPACT will push for the fastest possible pay recovery in the context of public finances and other calls on the public purse, like investment in infrastructure and public services,” said General Secretary Shay Cody. “We will continue to pursue this in the next set of negotiations, expected to begin in the spring or early summer.”
Photo: Shay Cody