Ireland - Public sector unions plan further action after national strike - November 30, 2009

On 26 November, the chairman of the 24/7 Frontline Services Alliance --consisting of Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Garda Representative Association, Irish Nurses Organisation, Prison Officers Association, Psychiatric Nurses Association and SIPTU--, Des Kavanagh, welcomed the resumption of talks between the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the government over how to address the current economic crisis in a fair and equitable way. "We hope that further industrial action can be avoided but we will be carefully monitoring the talks to ensure that any proposals emerging from them take into account the special conditions in which frontline emergency workers operate", he said. The chairman of the ICTU Public Services Committee, Peter McLoone, went on record on 10 November stating that ICTU intended to protect all pay in the talks. This means that allowances, overtime and other premium payments will have to be taken into account. On Tuesday 24 November, about 250,000 Irish government employees staged the biggest strike in the country in at least three decades, protesting against plans to cut pay to contain the budget deficit. Nurses, teachers and tax officials were among those taking part in the 24-hour nationwide stoppage. Public sector unions have called on the government to negotiate or face another national strike on 3 December.

English: http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2009/Name,11290,en.html; http://www.epsu.org/cob/330

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter, which presents up-to-date information on collective bargaining developments across Europe. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009. All rights reserved. The ETUI is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. The ETUI is financially supported by the European Community. The European Community is not responsible for any use made of the information contained in this news section.