Mid-ranking civil servants will refuse to provide any additional productivity in return for pay restoration in forthcoming talks with the government, according to the president of the Public Service Executive Union.
Opening the PSEU annual conference in Killarney, union President Brendan Lawless said he wanted to emphasise to the official side representing the Government that as far as the union was concerned, the negotiations due to get under way in May would only be about getting money back for state employees.
In recent weeks, Minister for Health Leo Varadkar, Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton and Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney have all indicated that pay rises must be linked to further reform.
A number of sources on the Government side have also indicated that there will be no reversal of productivity measures including extra working hours introduced under the Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements.
However, Mr Lawless told delegates that while there may be plans in some Government quarters to seek more changes, there were two major flaws.
He said first they had given all they could give, and second, they had already given all they could give.
He said this was such a big flaw, that it was worth mentioning twice.
Mr Lawless said public servants had endured a huge burden of adjustment during the crisis, and the time was now right to begin restoration.
He urged the Government to reverse some measures, including reductions in flexi-leave, which he described as purely punitive.
Mr Lawless also called for the closure of tax loopholes that allowed international companies to avoid the already low rate of corporation tax.
He cited a recent report stating that a company had deliberately avoided paying over €1 billion in corporate taxes in Europe between 2009 and 2013 - at a time when public sector workers were having their wages slashed.
He also noted that during that period, more than 56,000 tax inspectors had been cut across the EU at precisely the moment where they were most needed to investigate these corporations.
He also voiced doubts as to whether taxpayers would reap a reward when the nationalised banks rescued with taxpayer’s money returned to profit.
