Unions react angrily to another pay freeze for public sector workers

The OSSOO trade union representing public service workers has reacted angrily to the announcement that 30,000 civil servants will face a pay freeze this year. The union argues that this fails to recognise the efforts of state workers during the pandemic and the threat to living standards posed by large increases in energy and other costs. OSSOO is also protesting over the failure of the government to engage in any form of negotiation. The union is coordinating open letters from different groups of workers to their relevant minister raising the issue and highlighting the impact of the pay

Public service federations FSC-CCOO and FSP-UGT have attacked the government for its sudden announcement of deep public spending cuts. The government wants to cut pay by 5% this year and freeze it next year. Most pensions will be frozen and a range of other measures will add up to €5 billion of cuts this year and €10 billion in 2011. Unions are angry at the way the government has broken agreements with the unions and wants to force public sector workers to suffer cuts in pay and pensions because of the pressure of the international financial markets. [Read more at > FSC CCOO (ES)->http://www

Public service union IMPACT has criticised a report from the ESRI research organisation that calls for pay cuts in the public sector. The union says that the report uses 2006 figures, which take no account of the current public service pay freeze or the 7.5% average cut in gross pay suffered by all public servants under the so-called ‘pensions levy’. Nor does it include incomes for self-employed professionals, who are the obvious private sector ‘comparators’ for thousands of public service professional staff. [Read more at > IMPACT (EN)->http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk