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CURRENT ECONOMIC CRISIS

SIPTU says historic opportunity to create a fairer society to face challenge of economic crisis is being lost

Date Released: 03 Feb 2009

SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor said this evening that he “very much regrets the failure to reach agreement on a social solidarity pact in our discussions with the Government to address the issues facing ordinary people as a result of ten years of recklessness on the part of those at the top in our society. The economic crisis threatens everyone in Ireland but it also offers an opportunity to develop a genuine national effort to which all sectors of society could contribute in accordance with their capacity to do so.

“The talks presented the possibility of achieving this and it is regrettable that they did not succeed.

“We had hoped to emerge with a proposal which provided some level of guaranteed pension for workers in the private sector who have been paying into schemes all their lives and who may now receive nothing at all. It should also have been possible to achieve a guarantee that workers who find themselves unemployed as a result of the down turn would not have their homes repossessed due to defaulting on mortgage repayments for three years.

“We had also hoped to agree a scheme providing immediate access to training or education for workers who become redundant or are clearly threatened with redundancy. Measures like these would have served as the litmus test for a genuinely inclusive social solidarity pact.

“Regrettably, as it turns out, working people once again are expected to carry the entire burden of a crisis created by those at the top of society. Ironically a worker on €30,000 a year will now be paying €33.52c a week for their pension, slightly more than they will actually get out of it after 20 years' service.

“Even in its application this levy discriminates disproportionately against middle and low income workers. IBEC’s announcement on January 9, that it was tearing up the national pay agreement is proof positive that this is a concerted campaign to drive down wages across the economy in response to the currency fluctuations that would otherwise have been addressed by devaluation.

“Tragically the end looser of this divisive agenda will be the Irish people generally – workers and employers. It is still not too late to construct an agreement that genuinely addresses the challenges facing Ireland, and which is fair and reasonable to all sections of our society. We, in SIPTU, want to achieve this and we are available to try and do so even at this late stage.”





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