August 16th: Unite public sector representatives met this morning to discuss the proposed Public Sector Stability Agreement. The meeting followed several weeks of workplace consultation with members.
At the meeting, public sector representatives voted overwhelmingly to recommend rejection of the proposed agreement. Balloting will commence on Monday August 21st, and will conclude at noon on Friday September 8th.
Unite will cast its votes in accordance with the outcome of the ballot when the ICTU Public Services Committee meets on September 18th to conduct the aggregate ballot. Today’s meeting decided that Unite will be bound by the results of that aggregate ballot.
Speaking after the meeting, Unite Regional Co-Ordinating Officer Richie Browne said:
“The overwhelming vote to recommend rejection of the proposed PSSA reflects our members’ anger at the fact that, by the end of the proposed agreement, workers will have waited 12 years to have their pay restored. Members are also frustrated at the lack of sufficient progress on the Croke Park hours – a cost-saving measure only partially ameliorated by the proposal for workers to ‘buy back’ hours – and the additional superannuation contributions which will make a permanent dent in workers’ wage packets.
“Unite members working in the public sector are not prepared to continue paying the price for a crisis not of their making”, Richie Browne concluded.
Unite the Union, Ireland Region 