Public sector workers’ strike vote is no bluff, union says

Siptu has denied that the threat of industrial action in advance of public sector pay talks was posturing or bluffing.

The union, which is the country’s second largest organiser of public sector workers with about 75,000 members, said on Monday that 97 per cent of those who participated in a ballot voted in support of strike action in a dispute over a new national pay deal.

The previous public sector pay deal expired at the end of June.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, the union’s deputy general secretary, Adrian Kane, said the current situation was “a mess of the Government’s own making”.

The decision of Siptu and its sister unions to ballot members across the public sector during the month of August was down to “the failure of the Government to put an offer in relation to pay on the table”, he said. “I don’t believe it’s a bluff on our behalf.”

The vote of 97 percent in favour of strike action was an indicator of the “level of anger out there”, he said. “That’s quite unprecedented. So, what we will be doing over the next two weeks will be meeting with our representative committees throughout the union, and Siptu will then decide what action we take.

“We will also then confer with our sister unions in the public service as to what co-ordinated action [may be taken] … But we will, in the first place, be discussing with our representative committees over the next two weeks what industrial action up to and including strike action that we take.”

This decision was not being taken lightly, he said. People were serious about trying to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis, he continued, and there had not been any adjustment in tax bands in the budget to take into account inflation. “We are now probably around 5 percent behind as a result of inflation and as a result of that decision. Those issues have to be addressed in terms of a pay offer.

“The point I would make is you’re playing catch-up because of the failure to do that the last time around. So that has to be addressed, as does also index-linking tax bands on this occasion.”

Kane denied that Siptu was introducing preconditions. He said he had previously conducted many negotiations in the public sector where, typically, the company and management would outline what they were prepared to put on the table.

“They don’t leave it to the last minute and start trying to negotiate every other thing … So because of the Government’s position and the way they have conducted preliminary negotiations to date, we have taken this decision.

“We’re a representative and a democratic organisation. And when we get a mandate by our members for strike action of 97 percent, we have to keep faith with them. If the Government wants to engage with us, the door is open and we’ll do that.

“But we will also keep faith with our own members. They’ve said their door is open as well.”