NI civil servants walk out in strike-break protest
More than 100 civil servants in the North staged a second unofficial walk-out today in protest at the suspension of colleagues for refusing to carry out the work of people on strike.
Members of the public service union NIPSA have been engaged in industrial action over pay for over six months.
On Monday, 100 employees in the Department of Education’s teachers pay and pensions branch in Derry walked out when 28 colleagues were sent home without pay for refusing to carry out the work of union members who were on strike.
They returned to work this morning but walked out again when they discovered that another two colleagues had received suspension letters.
NIPSA assistant secretary Tony McMullan said that management had been warned about suspending staff for refusing to do the work of people in other grades who were on strike.
He said that the workers had been working to contract and it was “incredible” that they were suspended.
He urged the management to recognise the seriousness of their actions and to “pull back from the brink”.
Seamus Gallagher, the NIPSA representative in Derry, said that the those suspended had been responsible for paying the wages of permanent teachers.
Because management had made “such a mess” over the payment of temporary teachers over the past two months while staff had been on strike, they wanted all staff working to correct the position, he said.
“Staff felt it was not appropriate to be interfering in that area of work,” he said.
The union has been engaged in selective industrial action since before last Christmas over what it sees as a British government refusal to pay a cost of living increase since April, 2003.
Britain's finance minister Ian Pearson increased the wage bill by 3.67%, but the union said that that was part of pre-agreed increments and took no account of the rise in the cost of living.
