Public sector workers may get early pay restoration

Public sector workers could have their pay levels restored quicker than had been initially envisaged under the Lansdowne Road Agreement on public pay, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has indicated.

While Ministers have privately accepted the Lansdowne Road deal was unlikely to survive its full planned duration until September 2018, Mr Donohoe yesterday publicly raised the prospect of a successor deal kicking in before then.

“I will be having negotiations and discussions regarding the duration of the replacement for the Lansdowne Road Agreement and other models with union representatives next year,” he said.

Mr Donohoe made the comments at a press conference with Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald on the issue of the threatened Garda strike this Friday.

The public sector pay commission, which is preparing the ground for negotiations to a successor deal to Lansdowne Road, is due to report by the middle of next year. This will be followed by negotiations on a successor deal, which will have to be concluded in time for next year’s budget.

Successor

It has been privately acknowledged by Government figures for some time that announcing a successor to Lansdowne Road in the lead-up to next October’s budget but expecting public sector workers to wait for pay increases to take effect until the subsequent September is unrealistic.

Mr Donohoe’s statement yesterday is one of the first public indications of that but Ministers privately warned that bringing pay restoration forward by a number of months – while keeping it within the calendar year of 2018 – could hit other services.

“There is no way we will get to September 2018 with Lansdowne,” said one minister. “But it is still only a year old and any compromise on Lansdowne is a compromise on funding services.”

Mr Donohoe was again adamant that any deal with An Garda Síochána must stay within the parameters of Lansdowne Road, a position supported by Fianna Fáil.

‘High stakes’

However Dara Calleary, the Fianna Fáil spokesman on public expenditure, said the Government's delay in allowing the involvement of Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court in the Garda dispute had led to a last minute "high stakes" game. Mr Calleary said this was the entire responsibility of the Government.

The industrial dispute is to be taken to the Labour Court today and Government figures said this could allow for a suspension of the strike pending further negotiations.

Ms Fitzgerald warned that gardaí participating in Friday’s strike will have their pay docked and could be held liable for any damages that occur while they withdraw their labour.

She said each member of the force had taken a “solemn oath” and it is up to each garda to decide if a strike is consistent with that oath. Ms Fitzgerald said contingency plans are in place for the planned strike this Friday, which could see more than 12,000 gardaí out of 13,500 withdraw their labour. The Army will be on standby, she said.

"The Defence Forces are obviously on standby as an aid to the civil power," she said. "But I have made very clear – it is as an aid to the civil power. They cannot replace An Garda Síochána."