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2009

SUPPORT PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS

Date Released: 20 Nov 2009

Tens of thousands of public sector workers will stage a one day strike on Tuesday (24th November) in protest against government plans to enforce pay and pension cuts in the December budget.  

Nurses, teachers, government and State employees including fire, ambulance and emergency workers will join the strike and picket their places of employment for the day. 

The refusal of the government to accept an alternative to its vicious cost cutting and austerity plans while the 5% who control 40% of national wealth will make no additional contribution has forced public sector workers to strike in what could well be just the start of a prolonged period of industrial action.

Unions representing public sector workers, including SIPTU, have argued that government plans to take a further €1.3 billon in costs out of the public service through a 6.85% pay cut and reductions in pensions are both unfair and counter-productive. 

They are unfair because public sector workers have already saved the tax payer €1.3 billion this year as a result of the so called pension levy and over the coming year will generate savings of three times this amount through the levy, the recruitment ban, job losses and the continuing pay freeze. 

It is counter-productive because taking such volumes of money out of the real economy will damage consumer spending, causing more closures and job losses in both private and public sectors, reducing vital income tax and VAT revenues and creating more demand for social welfare.  

Last March, every public servant suffered a pay cut of 7% through the so called pension levy while every worker was hit with new levies and taxes. Now the government plans a further round of cuts targeting the public sector pay bill, pensions and public services. 

SIPTU and other public service union negotiators have told the government that unions are prepared to assist in the reform of the public sector, and are prepared to identify, and deal with, areas where savings can be made. They have asked the government to set out its plans for the transformation of the public sector in a way that is transparent. They have demanded that any implementation mechanism for change is agreed and takes account of what public sector workers have already contributed through levies, a pay freeze and the recruitment ban. 

Most public servants are on low or modest incomes with two-thirds paid below €50,000 a year and four out of ten paid less than €40,000 a year. Between 5000 and 6000 public service jobs have already been lost this year and thousands more temporary staff have been let go. 

Public servants pay an average of 6.5% of their pay towards their pensions on top of PRSI contributions and the pension levy. The majority of retired civil servants receive pensions of less than €20,000 per year including the statutory old age pension. Support staff in the health service and local authorities receive pensions in the order of just €100 per week after 40 years service.

The crisis in this economy was not caused by low and middle income public sector or private sector workers. They will be the people to rescue it, however, but only if a fair way forward can be agreed.





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