Talks between unions and Government over new pay deal finish without agreement

The prospect of a second national public service strike grew on Friday evening as talks between Government representatives and union leaders at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) concluded without agreement.Speaking as the talks ended at about 11.30pm, Kevin Callinan, general secretary of Fórsa, said it had become clear that the gap between the two sides was too great to close at this stage and, with no further talks planned for over the weekend, he and the other trade union participants in the process would now brief the other public service unions on Monday.“It doesn’t seem possible at this moment that we’re going to be able to reach an agreement that we could confidently put to our members in a ballot so our next step is to meet with our affiliate unions on Monday morning, where we’ll brief them on the negotiations, and decide on what comes next,” he said.Asked if it was possible the two sides would be brought back together under the auspices of the Kevin Foley-led committee appointed to help resolve the outstanding difficulties that had originally prevented the talks getting started, Callinan said that was a matter for the WRC but that the unions would remain available and would attend any process initiated. READ MORE“But we really need to be confident that any proposals would be likely to be accepted by members of the ballot, and we’re a long way from that,” he said.He said the union side had been consistent from the outset with regard to the issues that needed to be addressed by Government in terms of the gap between pay increases and inflation over the past five years, an increase for the second half of this year and measures to ensure members were protected against spikes in inflation over the course of any new deal and agreement. A second national public services strike will be scheduled for Wednesday, November 11th, if no deal between the Government and trade unions on a new pay agreement is reached before or over the weekend, Callinan said earlier.Callinan, who is also chair of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ public services committee, said the 19 unions it encompasses should meet on Monday to get an update on the talks and, if no agreement has been reached by then, to discuss taking further action.In the message, he says the strike, which would again close the State’s schools and severely affect health, local authority and other services, would allow for demonstrations in Dublin and other big urban centres by more than 300,000 staff affected.In an earlier update to the 100,000 members of his own union, Callinan said the talks had been “lengthy and at times heated” and that while a deal remains possible “the Government has yet to put forward a credible offer, and it remains to be seen whether it will do so”.He said it remains unclear whether an agreement can be reached over the coming days. Referencing the prospect of another one-day stoppage, Callinan told members: “If we fail to reach an acceptable agreement by the weekend, it leaves unions with no alternative but to escalate the action.”Senior officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as well as the four union leaders participating in the main negotiations arrived for the latest session at 10am on Friday.There had been some optimism that an agreement could be reached if the two sides pushed through the night on Thursday, but in the end it was concluded that their respective conditions were not close enough to continue past about 10pm.Arrangements for a second national strike on November 11th have to be put in place early next week as seven days’ notice must be given. In health, the required notice period is generally three weeks but the unions believe they are covered by the original notice of action served last month and the continuing work-to-rule.The potential for another national stoppage may be viewed by the Government side as an attempt by the unions to leverage their power as the talks enter what one source described as their “crunch period”.