The decision of public sector unions to prepare for and conduct ballots for industrial action is, at this time, necessary. The previous agreement is now up and the Government has failed to engage meaningfully with workers’ unions. Indeed, their rhetoric has attempted to divide workers and pit public sector pay against public services while at the same time providing massive tax cuts to the likes of McDonalds. In entering into negotiations in the coming weeks, the Industrial Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland encourages the labour movement to remain strong on the following items:
1. There must be a real pay increase for members protecting workers and their families against inflation. Any agreement concluded months after the expiry of the previous settlement must provide an increase covering the period from 1 July 2026.
2. Unmet commitments under the previous agreement should be honoured. The union movement must not accept a demand for industrial peace while local bargaining claims remain unresolved. Commitments already entered into must be implemented fully and within an agreed timeframe. Local bargaining processes should be strengthened.
3. Pay negotiations should not become a blank cheque for the Government on labour deployment, restructuring and/or change. The labour movement should consent to no changes affecting jobs, staffing levels, workloads, working locations, professional standards or established conditions without specific prior negotiation and collective agreement. Unions should demand the necessary funding for public services and an end to creeping privatisation.
4. Unions need to steel themselves to challenge the inevitable arguments from the Establishment about the constraints of the government’s fiscal space. Fiscal space is not a politically neutral quantity. It is shaped by decisions about public expenditure, tax reductions, tax reliefs and which forms of income and wealth the State chooses to tax or leave untaxed. Furthermore, adjustments to income-tax bands may be necessary to prevent workers being penalised by ‘fiscal drag’, but they must not be presented as a substitute for a public-service pay increase. Tax reductions do not improve salary scales or pensionable pay and their benefits are not distributed equally. As Ireland learnt during the 2000s, weakening the permanent tax base is not a sustainable strategy.
The Industrial Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland supports our public sector members and public sector unions in their ballots for industrial action and in taking strong and clear negotiating positions.
