SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor has said his union is engaged in a major push for pay increases across the private sector to recover ground temporarily lost during the crisis years.
Speaking at the annual Jim Larkin commemoration in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on Sunday, (February 2nd) he added that there was ‘a compelling case for alleviating the tax burden on lower to middle income families’ through measures such as refundable child tax credits or lower Universal Social Charges.
However he said there was no justification for the tax cuts some employers’ groups are demanding for high income groups.
‘We must apply ourselves as Larkin did in his day to the immediate task of recovering ground which has been temporarily lost over the crisis years as well as defending occupational pension schemes’, he said.
‘That is why we are engaged in a major push to win pay increases across the private sector.
‘We know that there is space to do it without endangering job creation, because unit labour costs have fallen significantly vis a vis our major trading partners due to wage stagnation and increased productivity over the last five years.
‘Indeed far from damaging job prospects the best way to stimulate domestic demand which accounts for three quarters of the economy is by growing consumption.
‘And the best way to do this is by increasing pay and purchasing power and we are precisely focussed on assisting workers to organise themselves to this end.’
He went on to say, ‘We utterly reject calls by some among the business and employer organisations for further cuts in public spending to fund tax reductions for those on higher incomes.
‘They never specify as to whether these additional cuts should be inflicted on the struggling public health service, or on what remains of a housing programme, or on the education sector, or on such provision as exists for care of the elderly, or otherwise.
‘As far as they are concerned, democratically elected politicians are there to take the blame for these choices.
‘Having escaped contributing anything remotely approaching their capacity to do so during the dark years of one sided austerity they now want to get back to business as usual.
‘All they know is that they want more – much, much, more and they don’t give a damn who suffers the consequences.
‘Yes, there is a compelling case for measures to alleviate the tax burden on lower to middle income families in the form perhaps of a refundable child tax credit or expanding the lower bands for the Universal Social Charge.
‘But there is none – absolutely none for tax cuts for the rich. Indeed far from that – they should actually be contributing more precisely to provide the means to alleviate the burden on citizens generally.
‘Moreover we repudiate the disingenuous argument that cutting services for citizens to fund tax cuts for the better off makes good economic sense.
‘It doesn’t, because it is merely moving resources from one sector to another without increasing aggregate demand.
‘The strategy of increasing pay must be accompanied by rapid deployment of the Strategic Investment Fund to generate thousands of jobs.
‘The other ingredient is the restoration of credit lines and this can be best achieved through the creation of a new investment bank.’
Meanwhile, multinational companies, including Intel, could face pickets from 24 February as electricians ballot for nationwide industrial action over pay, according to the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union.
TEEU General Secretary Eamon Devoy said electricians are seeking a 4.9% pay rise from electrical contractors.
He said the increase is due under a Labour Court recommendation which was never implemented.
The ballot result is due on Friday 7 February, and if no settlement is achieved in the interim, 6,500 electricians and apprentices could commence strike action on 24 February.
Devoy said the dispute would hit a number of areas where electrical contractors operate, including multinationals, electricity supply and construction.
He cited Intel, which currently has 2,000 contractors on site, including 650 electricians.
Devoy was speaking as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions confirmed that it is taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights, alleging a failure by the government to ensure the right to collective bargaining in Ireland.
This follows a Supreme Court ruling last May, which declared unconstitutional, sectoral wage-setting mechanisms called Registered Employment Agreements (REAs).
This in turn meant that legally binding protections for workers’ pay and conditions in sectors covered by REAs were diminished.
However, it is understood it could take up to four years for the case to be heard.
l MANDATE and SIPTU have welcomed the news that the establishment orders for the Joint Labour Committees (JLCs) have been signed.
The JLCs, once they are formed by trade union and employer representatives under the auspices of Kieran Mulvey, the Chief Executive Officer of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), will set basic levels of pay, above the minimum wage, for tens of thousands of low paid workers.
MANDATE General Secretary, John Douglas said: ‘The JLC system operates mostly in low-paid sectors and where workers have little ability to protect or improve their conditions of employment.
‘The re-establishment of the JLC’s will ensure that thousands of low-paid vulnerable workers will be protected and will ensure that the concept of decent work is put back on the agenda. MANDATE is calling on all of the relevant employers to engage positively with the process as a matter of urgency’ he said.
SIPTU Vice-President, Patricia King, said: ‘This is a good day for low paid workers. It follows the intensive lobbying, and engagement with the government, by the trade union movement. We now expect that the CEO of the LRC will be requested to invite the parties to make their nominations to the JLCs.
‘We would expect the employers in the six relevant sectors including hospitality and catering, retail, contract cleaning, security and agriculture to take a full and productive part in the process.’
• The appointment of a liquidator to Mount Carmel hospital last week, along with news that the hospital is to close, came as a severe blow to the 300 staff, more than 80 of whom are IMPACT members.
They were represented by their official Stephen O’Neill at a lengthy meeting with the liquidators last Tuesday night. O’Neill was accompanied by Tony Martin of the Dublin Hospitals’ branch and IMPACT official Dessie Robinson.
After the meeting, O’Neill said that the liquidators had outlined what was expected to happen in the coming days, ‘They told us that obstetrics is due to close on Friday, while an ante-natal service will continue and an obstetrician will be on duty until the 8th or 9th of February. It is likely that we will see redundancies in the coming days.
‘Our priority here is to see what can possibly be done to save these jobs. Our members are understandably hurt, this is the worst possible news they could have received. Mount Carmel has an outstanding reputation as a maternity hospital.
‘That reputation is built on the expertise of the staff who work there. It makes no sense that maternity services in Ireland should lose this pool of considerable knowledge and experience. It is a source of genuine anger that the hospital is facing closure in these circumstances. These workers deserve better’ he said.
The group of unions, which includes the INMO, Siptu and the MLSA, was meeting last Wednesday to consider all available options to help save the jobs of staff.
• Ireland is the third most expensive of the 18 eurozone countries for goods and services, according to a report by Forfás.
The State agency’s unpublished report went to Cabinet last week and it is expected the government will act on some of its recommendations in the coming months.
The study looked at the recession years from 2008 to 2012 and compared prices in Ireland to other countries in the eurozone.
Up to that point Ireland had been the most expensive place to buy goods and services, but it has since dropped two places to third spot.
It found that while costs had dropped, Irish people still pay on average almost 14% more for goods and services.
During the recession food prices on average did not rise, while the cost of clothes and shoes rose by 5%.
However, the cost of education rose by almost 6%, while Irish people pay almost 35% more for health care.
Health insurance has risen by more than 14% a year in Ireland, compared to a 2.5% rise every year across rest of the eurozone.
The cost of taking a train or bus also increased by an average of 5% a year during the recession, almost 1.5% higher than other eurozone countries.
Ireland is also ranked in top spot when it comes to alcohol and tobacco prices.
The report recommends that Vhi Healthcare should be treated as a regular insurer and says legislation should be introduced to allow people change health insurer halfway through their cover period.
More competition on urban bus routes was also called for.
The report suggests that graduates could be made pay back some of their third level education costs when they get jobs.
It also says that future wage increases should be linked to productivity and not inflation.