Public sector faces widespread strikes if new pay deal not agreed

The public sector faces widespread strikes if progress is not made on a new national pay deal following the result of a ballot on Monday.Siptu, the country’s second largest organiser of public sector workers with about 75,000 members, said 97 per cent of those who participated in a ballot voted in support of strike action.Members of Unite and the Prison Officers Association have already voted to take industrial action in the absence of a deal.“This clear and decisive result reflects the deep and utter frustration among our members at the Government’s failure to present workers’ representatives with serious proposals on pay or provide guarantees against outsourcing,” said Siptu deputy general secretary Adrian Kane. READ MORE“The previous public service agreement expired in June, and this Government has sat on its hands since then. Trade unions have been available for months to negotiate a successor agreement, but the Government has failed to engage meaningfully. “It is unacceptable and has caused a huge swell of anger across our 75,000-strong membership in the public service. The cost-of-living crisis affects workers throughout the economy. “Public service workers not only deliver vital health, local government, education and other essential frontline and emergency services to our communities; they are also the partners, parents, siblings and children of workers in every other sector.”Fórsa, which has 100,000 members – almost all of them in the public sector – will announce the outcome of its ballot on Tuesday.Kevin Callinan, a key player in the pay talks process in his role as chairman of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ public services committee, is expected to address the delay in commencing negotiation on a successor to the deal, which expired at the end of June.[ Jack Chambers: We’re ready to do a deal on public servants’ pay – and everything is on the tableOpens in new window ]That deal delivered increases of 9.25 per cent over 2½ years. Many of the country’s 400,000 public sector employees also received another 1 per cent under a “local bargaining” process provided for under the agreement.However, in some cases this was targeted at specific groups where outstanding issues were felt to exist, and in others it has yet to be paid due to disagreements with the Department of Public Expenditure over what should qualify.Another of the country’s biggest public sector unions, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, is due to complete its ballot over the next week, while the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), which has about 20,000 members, said on Monday it will hold a ballot of its own before the end of September.ASTI president Richie Bell said the union’s members had shown “good faith in engaging with significant reform and change through the years”. “In return they are entitled to fair pay and genuine engagement from the Government rather than delay and inaction,” he said.The union said the two 1 per cent pay increases received by public servants since the start of this year under the terms of the old deal have already been cancelled out by inflation, and new agreement is required to cover the final six months of 2026 and all of next year.[ ‘It’s part of the dance’: State and union sides posture over new public-service pay dealOpens in new window ]The country’s two other teachers’ unions, the Irish National Teachers Organisation and Teachers Union of Ireland – with about 60,000 members between them – have also confirmed their intention to ballot on action in the coming weeks.Initial talks on a new deal have so far failed to provide a roadmap for negotiations, the unions have said, and the ballots are seen as a way of strengthening their hand by providing the option to announce action if no progress is made.