Public sector pay threatens economic viability - ISME
Independent business organisation ISME, has called for a complete overhaul of the public sector after the CSO figures today confirmed that public sector pay increased by 4.8% and is now running 46% ahead of the average industrial wage.
The association criticised the Government for committing significant public resources to a sector that has constantly failed to provide value for money.
ISME chief executive, Mark Fielding, said: "Today’s CSO figures confirm that the average wage in the public sector is €46,000 well in excess of the average industrial wage of €31,000.
"This confirms, as if confirmation was needed, that Irish public servants are being paid at a rate well in excess of the norm and are providing services well below the norm of other comparable EU countries.
"This is completely unacceptable that our hard earned money is constantly going to a sector that is not accountable to anyone including their own employer, the Government, and whose representatives continuously threaten to withdraw those services as is the case with the current nurses’ dispute.
"The benchmarking scandal is about to be repeated, with absolutely no chance of reductions in public sector pay, giving a lie to the transparency of the exercise and confirming once again the weakness of Government when dealing with their workers.
"If the unsheltered private sector handed out wage increases of the magnitude of the recent public sector figures, there is no doubt that they would go bankrupt. Not so our Government who have the dubious luxury of being able to dip into the pockets of the Irish public to fund the over generous give-aways,” he said.
"Due in part to the ever-increasing cost environment - which ironically has been exacerbated by benchmarking, particularly increased local charges - the private sector is now under increasing pressure and workforces are being forced to adapt as businesses are restructured.
“Unfortunately, the benchmarking process has completely failed to take account of this new business environment and has simply not delivered in terms of introducing a new level of adaptability and change into the public service.
"No tinkering around the edges will alter that position, unless there is a radical change in addressing the archaic and inflexible practices of the public sector,” continued Fielding.
The recent Government estimates outlined that the public sector pay and pensions bill will reach €18bn next year, up from €16.7bn in 2006.
This represents an increase of €1.3bn or 7.8% on the 2006 figure - a 38% of total gross current expenditure for 2007.
Since 2000 the level of public sector pay has more than doubled, when the figure was €8.8bn. While employment numbers have increased by 67,000 in this period, it still does not explain the significant increase in pay.
“If this current trend of increase continues, the Government will have no option but to increase taxes in the future, which will inevitably threaten our economic viability,” commented Fielding.
"Is it too much to ask the Government to act in the national interest and ensure that a meaningful improvement in the quality of public services is delivered in return for the unwarranted financial burden of benchmarking?
"From experience to date it seems a futile call and one that will once again fall on deaf ears.”
