Gardaí, nurses give backing to pay cut plan
The Government’s €1bn public sector pay cut plan has further support after gardai and nurses gave it their backing.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have both voted in favour of supporting the Haddington Road agreement.
The deal, the successor to Croke Park, will see public sector pay cuts of €300m this year and one billion euro over three years.
GRA general secretary PJ Stone confirmed 84% of members voted in favour of the deal, drawn up by the Labour Relations Commission.
“We remain living in uncertain times, and earlier this year our executive resoundingly rejected the original proposals put forward by government as Croke Park II,” Mr Stone said.
“Our duty is to ensure our members are not subjected to further pay cuts or the erosion of pay for working unsocial hours – and the agreement worked through the LRC has maintained each member’s earnings in exchange for 30 extra hours work.”
Almost three-quarters of the INMO – 71% – voted to support the deal.
General secretary Liam Doran said this was the third time nurses and midwives, as public servants, had been hit with a reduction to their terms and conditions of employment.
He said it was time both the Government and health service management acknowledge this “harsh reality”.
“The INMO, in working towards the implementation of this agreement, will be insisting that all employers fully comply with the information and consultation requirements within the agreement, and demonstrate total respect for the contribution, that has, is, and will continue to be made, by nurses and midwives as frontline health professionals and public servants,” Mr Doran said.
The GRA and INMO join Siptu and the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, the largest teaching union, in supporting the proposals.
The executives of the Association of Secondary Teachers’ of Ireland and the Teachers’ Union of Ireland have rejected the Haddington Road deal and not put it to a ballot.
The Unite trade union, which represents about 6,000 people in the public sector, put it to a vote and members refused to support it.
The Government has warned that it will impose unilateral pay cuts if unions do not support the Haddington Road Agreement.
A spokesperson for Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, said he welcomes the favourable ballot results over the last few days in relation to the Haddington Road Agreement.
“He looks forward to implementing this now, with the protections that it offers, with those unions that have endorsed the agreement,” he added.
