By Harry Hutchinson, chair, Tyrone Peoples Assembly/Dail.
On Friday January 24, up to 23,000 civil servants across Norther Ireland will go on a one-day strike demanding for a decent pay increase. The strength of feeling amongst Civil Servants, that ‘enough is enough’, is as strong as the health workers, who have been on strike and conducting industrial action over pay. Almost 70% of civil servants voted for strike action and just under 90% for action short of strike action.
For nine consecutive years civil servants have received below-inflation pay rises or suffered a pay freeze. The offer of 2.1% for 2019/20 would be another year that these public sector workers would have had to incur a pay cut in real terms, with inflation running at almost 2%.
Various civil servant departments can offer higher pay to their employees, but this, apparently has to come from savings being made within their departments, such as staff redundancies or cutting back on services.
Meetings between NIPSA, the largest union representing civil servants, and the Department of Finance at Stormont have resulted in stalemate. Apparently there is no extra money in the finance budget for an increased offer to be made. It’s quite clear that with Stormont up and running again, the British administration are intent on starving it of funds to force more austerity on public sector workers in Northern Ireland.
Infuriatingly for civil servants, their strike for decent pay comes at a time when members of the Stormont Assembly (MLAs) have been granted a £1000-a-year increase on top of their already extortionate £49,500 salaries, with a further £500 increase in the new financial year. So no money for civil servants but full funding for the ‘puppet legislators’ of capitalism.
Pay Review Body…’independent’ of workers’ representatives
The MLAs’ increase follows the recommendation of the so-called Independent Pay Review Body, which is made up of a professor, a hospital consultant and a the head of a health trust – no workers’ representative. Effectively, this review body replaces collective bargaining and undermines the unions, which should be the main negotiating tool on behalf of workers.
Forcing severe pay restraints on workers has more to do than saving government finance department money. Its purpose is also to tie workers in to the capitalist system by demoralising them into excepting meagre increases.
The unions negotiating on behalf of civil servants must not fall into the government’s trap, that their is ‘no money’ to pay public sector workers decent wages. For the unions to propose a small above-inflation increase immediately concedes to the government’s agenda. The unions must put forward for a significant pay increase of around 10%. This immediately raises political consequences amongst workers and encourages them to engage in debate and further struggle to win real demands.
NIPSA must give a lead!
Demand a 10% pay increase for this year and at least a further 5% above inflation in the next 20/21 year!
January 23, 2010
