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Over 2,500 frontline staff, including gardaí and nurses, have gathered at the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght, to take part in a rally in protest at proposals to cut premium payments.
Government plans to cut pay for working on a Sunday from double time to time-and-a-half and to scrap premium payments for Saturdays and evening time are aimed at saving €170 million.
Among the speakers at the event was John Clinton, general secretary of the Irish Prison Officers' Association.
Mr Clinton said the "relentless campaign" against the public service had an "agenda" but it should also be "fair and factual".
He said the alliance of workers involved in the rally provided crucial services in challenging circumstances. But he said that anyone who carried out the most difficult, dangerous and challenging tasks, when asked what their greatest fear was, would reply that it would be the threat to their incomes.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has called on Government to 'state clearly' that any deal it agrees to extend the Croke Park deal will not have a 'disproportionate impact' on front line public servants.
“Much of the rhetoric coming from Government sources has focused on premium payments earned by frontline and emergency services workers. This is a source of great concern for many people - those who work unsociable hours in dangerous circumstances and the public who rely on them. In seeking agreement on achieving important additional savings from the public sector, the Government must ensure that frontline workers are not asked to bear a disproportionate burden,“ Mr Martin said.
Speaking earlier today the trade union representing lower-paid civil servants said anything that comes out of the current talks on an extension to the Croke Park agreement that involves people having to endure additional costs will be a “no, no”.
Following talks with public service management this morning the general secretary of the Civil Public and Services Union Eoin Ronayne said it was very difficult to see how progress could be made that his members could live with. However he said an outcome was still too early to call.
Mr Ronayne said talks this morning had centred on management proposals for staff to work additional hours and how this would impact on overtime and on overtime rates.
However he said no detail was provided in concrete terms and that there would be further discussions tomorrow.
He said from his union’s perspective “additional hours are fraught with difficulty”.
“Additional hours will mean our people will face additional costs sometime involving childcare but also in other domestic care arrangements. People work because they have flexibility. If the flexibility is going to be changed then we have great difficulty. There will be increased costs. Increased costs for our members are effectively a pay cut.”
Mr Ronayne said proposals to change existing flexitime working arrangements, which public service management are expected to table as part of the current process, were not considered at the talks.
However he said it was anticipated management would raise the issue of flexitime in due course.
Mr Ronayne said the mood of his members was very clear in that they were not in a position to endure any further impact in terms of costs and loss of pay.
Later in the week, the Government is expected to propose new workplace reform measures including changes to flexitime arrangements and the introduction of greater scope to redeploy personnel.
Earlier, sources close to the current process said the Government wanted to cut overtime rates. These go from time-and-a-quarter to double time. In the education sector, they said the Government wanted a combination of more hours and a reduction in the €125 million paid to teachers in supervision and substitution payments.
Asked whether the Government wanted to abolish all or just some of these payments, one source said: “The vast majority.”
High earners in the education sector – and in other parts of the public service – face a pay cut under Government proposals. There is speculation the threshold could be about €65,000. Sources said the Government wanted a pay cut but unions had suggested a step back on the incremental scale as an alternative. Sources said there was disagreement on plans to freeze or eliminate increments.
The Government has offered to offset savings from any deal to reduce the number of staff on duty on Sundays against the €170 million target.
It is understood the Government believes there are too many staff working on Sundays, particularly in health.
One source said: “Attendance patterns should be determined by service needs but in some places it seems to be driven by staff requirements.”
Unions leaving the talks would run the risk of any alternative roster arrangement being determined by others.
Other sources, however, said that unions had proposed changing existing arrangements for Sunday premium payments in 2001 but management had refused to engage.
It is understood public service management were yesterday considering alternative proposals put forward on Saturday by some unions for premium payments for support staff in the health service. This could involve a fixed payment rather than one linked to pay.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform said yesterday an outcome that protects premium payments of some and expects those who do not get them, in particular the lower and middle paid, to carry most of the burden “would be unfair and unacceptable to the Government”.
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