Kerry Public Service Workers' Alliance Rejects the Government Public Service Proposals

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release

Wednesday March 31, 2010 17:19

by Kerry Public Service Worker - Kerry Public Service Workers' Alliance

The Kerry Public Service Workers’ Alliance has rejected the government proposals emanating from the Croke Park talks as a recipe for the destruction of public services.

The Kerry Public Service Workers’ Alliance has rejected the government proposals emanating from the Croke Park talks as a recipe for the destruction of public services.

Public services are an investment and are central to our economic and social recovery. The proposal to vastly reduce public investment would result in poorer services for all citizens.

The KPSWA condemns the club of General Secretaries of the trade unions have grievously failed the union membership with a set of disastrous proposals that include:

* Acceptance that government can tear up any agreement as and when it chooses. The government reneged on the Towards 2016 agreement and reversed the pay element of previous agreements. The current proposals include an explicit clause that allows the government to again walk away from any commitments made.
* Admission that the trade unions accept that they can do nothing in future to protect public servants.
* No commitment to reversal of the pay cuts. They involve simply a promise of replacement cuts by way of wholesale worsening of members’ conditions.
* A vast reduction in the number of public servants with the closure and downgrading of services.
* Imposed redeployment of public servants without geographical restriction thereby forcing redundancy upon those unable to relocate.
* A five year pay freeze, even if the economy recovers as the government predicts it will.
* No removal of the pension levy.
* A much poorer pension entitlement for all new public servants joining from 2010.

Martin O’Grady (Chairman, KPSWA) said that “these proposals must be rejected out of hand. They would amount to the trade union movement folding up its tent and turning its back on its core function to protect members. It is shameful that the General Secretaries of the trade unions should seek to throw a lifeline to a failed government on its last legs that is hell bent on the destruction of public services so as to prop up casino banks such as Anglo Irish”.

The KPSWA will continue with its campaign for the unconditional reversal of pay cuts and calls on public servants to immediately reject the government proposals and to escalate the ongoing industrial action.

The Proposals can be downloaded here:

Proposed Public Service Agreement

Proposed Sectoral Agreements