merrion street

The Government and the Public Service Committee of the ICTU today made the following statement:

In light of progress made in the first year of implementation of the Public Service Agreement 2010 – 2014, the Government can reaffirm its commitments under the Agreement that there will be no further reductions in pay rates for serving public servants and on the non-application of compulsory redundancy (save where existing exit provisions apply).

These commitments are conditional on the ongoing delivery of the flexibilities set out under the Agreement, in particular those relating to cooperation with reduction in numbers, redeployment, cost containment and changes to work practices to improve productivity and maintain public services. The parties also note the need to create a climate to support the recovery in the wider economy, including through the proposals in the Government’s Jobs Initiative, and reaffirm their commitment to working together to deliver sustainable economic growth.

The parties note that the EU-IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland and the new Programme for Government 2011 contains additional and challenging targets in relation to public service paybill and numbers reductions. Following the outcome of the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure the parties will consult on delivery of any matters that are appropriate to be dealt with under the Agreement.

In light of the severe budgetary position, the Government is not in a position to address the effect on pay rates of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts of 2009 and reducing the effect of the pension levy at this time.

The moratorium on recruitment and promotion must continue to apply and large scale recruitment to the public service will not feature. It is envisaged that after a period of operation the moratorium would be adapted to a procedure of setting overall targets and pay averages by public service organisation/sector, while ensuring the redeployment of surplus public servants as a priority. Following the outcome of the Comprehensive Review of Expenditure further consideration will be given to the optimum means of achieving numbers targets in each sector with the precise modalities for such a procedure developed in the context of each sector.

In line with the commitment given in the Agreement, adjudication findings that were outstanding at the time of the Agreement will be reviewed by the parties, having regard to the terms of the Agreement, the moratorium on recruitment and promotion and the terms of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009.

The parties will continue to work together to maintain a stable industrial relations climate and to resolve disputes as early as possible and in line with the time bound commitments given in the Agreement.