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SIPTU local authority workers in North Dublin march through Swords in protest at pension levy

Date Released: 09 Mar 2009

Over 500 SIPTU members who work for Final County Council marched through the centre of Swords this afternoon to protest at the impact of the pension levy on their earnings. The Council is to debate a motion calling for the rescinding of the levy this evening.

At a mass meeting outside the County Council headquarters Ramon O’Reilly, SIPTU Branch Organiser, told Councillors that his members were seeking their support for the motion. “Whilst we understand the magnitude of the economic difficulties facing the country we fundamentally believe the approach taken so far by the Government to be wrong headed, counterproductive and grossly unfair.

“The members of our Branch, who comprise the so-called non-officer grades such as General Operatives, Drivers, Waste Collectors and Park Rangers have pension entitlements that are miserly to say the least. But they will suffer disproportionally from this pay cut.  A person in those grades earning €610 per week will receive a pension of €122 after 40 years' service.  A person on €610 per week with 20 years service' will receive €61 per week.

“In fact people earning €610 per week with 14 years' service or less will now receive a pension of €40 per week which is less than their €41 per week pension contribution, which now includes the so called levy.  The situation is even worse for temporary staff.  Countrywide tens of thousands of our members are in this situation.”

He called on Councillors to support the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ ten point stabilisation plan as the basis for any economic recovery strategy. “Make no mistake the priority must be to stem and reverse the job losses throughout the economy. These are having a devastating effect on working people and their families.  We reject utterly attempts being made by some commentators to pit private sector workers against public sector workers.”

The meeting was also addressed by the Mayor of Fingal, Tom Kelleher, Labour, Deputy Mayor Joan Maher, Fine Gael, Paul Donnelly of Sinn Fein, David O’Connor, Independent and Clare Daly of the Socialist Party, who is proposing the motion to rescind the levy this evening. Fianna Fail and the Greens declined invitations to provide a speaker.





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