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Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland
Union representatives meet with the Department of Public Expenditure during the Croke Park talks
# pay agreement
Civil servant union to recommend No vote on Croke Park II
The AHCPS which represents more than 2,700 public sector workers says its members have already taken pay reductions of at least 15 per cent.
A UNION REPRESENTING higher-paid civil servants is to recommend a No vote to its members when it ballots on whether to accept Croke Park II.
The Association of High Civil and Public Servants, which represents more than 2,700 senior civil and public service workers, says its members have already taken pay reductions of between 15 and 17 per cent, as well as tax and Universal Social Charge increases and extra working hours.
General Secretary of the AHCPS Dave Thomas said the decision “is one that was not taken lightly”.
However given the scale of the pay cuts proposed we have no other choice but to strongly recommend a No vote on the part of our members.The current proposals follow on a range of cuts already absorbed by AHCPS members in recent years.
The new Croke Park deal will see a sliding scale of pay cuts for employees earning more than €65,000 a year beginning with a 5.5 per cent cut and rising to a 10 per cent cut for staff earning over €185,000.
The AHCPS said the government has resisted other options such as taxing people on higher pay and said the Croke Park proposals “raise legitimate questions” about the “actual value that the government currently places on the work carried out by civil and public servants.
The executives of other public sector unions will be meeting over the coming days to decide whether they will recommend the Croke Park deal be accepted or rejected by their membership.
The CPSU, which represents around 13,000 clerical and administrative employees, is due to meet on Thursday to consider its next steps. The union withdrew from the negotiations on Croke Park on Sunday evening, saying that the provisions of the deal were “too deep, too wide and too unfair to the lower paid”.
General Secretary Eoin Ronayne has said he believes the final text of the deal confirms that view and that the union made the correct decision on behalf of its members.
Read: Howlin tells public servants Croke Park II will be ‘the last ask’ >
Poll: Do you think the proposed Croke Park agreement is a good deal? >
Read: Croke Park II: SIPTU national officers to take pay cuts >
