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| The face of empathy for the mass unemployed or of the selfishness of the boom years? From the Irish Independent's front page, Thursday, Oct 29, 2009: Tom Burke’s picture shows Patricia King of trade union SIPTU arriving at Government Buildings on Wednesday to present a démarche to the Government. |
Environment Minister John Gormley said on Thursday that "a type of civil war" existed between workers in the Irish public and private sectors. The CSO also reported on Thursday that 106 people took their lives during the first three months of this year, compared to 74 during the same period last year - - a 43% increase.
While 229,000 lost their jobs in the private sector since June 2008 and struggle in grim times in the modern money economy, the executive committee of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS), which represents over 3,000 senior civil servants and managers in the commercial and non-commercial State sector - - the biggest earners in the public service with one of the best public pensions in the world, tied to current salary rises until death - - has written to its members recommending that the association participate in the one-day strike on 24th November in protest at the Government’s "determination to proceed with a series of pay cuts."
The AHCPS general secretary, Dave Thomas, in the letter to members, argues that since the January 2009 the take home salaries of members have been unilaterally reduced by up to 17% (should Budget tax changes be agreed in advance with this union?) including the imposition of the so called “pension levy.” Thomas described this as “an unprecedented attack on the terms and conditions of members and their families. These savage cuts have had a major impact on members’ living standards
“The Executive Committee strongly believes that all sectors in society must play their part in the economic recovery process. The concept of equity and fairness is blatantly absent from the current debate and inordinate burdens (financial and otherwise) are being placed almost exclusively on the shoulders of public sector workers.”
Equity indeed.
Try some time on the dole and a basic pension when you retire and wonder about fairness.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said yesterday that the stark reality was that: “We don’t have the funds to fund what the public service unions expect and they are going to have to address that reality with us.
“If they choose to deny that reality, if they choose to embark on industrial action, for example, all that will happen is further damage to the economy for the people of this country,” he said.
“They want to tax everyone else to have higher salaries for themselves. That’s what they are telling the public.”
Lenihan also said the marginal rate of tax is 53% and that if the Government was to increase it further to raise an extra €1 billion “everyone or every couple earning over €100,000 would pay tax at a marginal rate of 63%.”
John Gormley asked public service unions: “Do we take cuts, or is it a case of having your cheques bounce because we’ve nearly got to that stage?”
There is a profound conservatism, selfishness and lack of a national spirit from all the vested interests in Ireland, which have collectively brought ruin to the economy and destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of their fellow citizens.
Patricia King and other trade union leaders know that the original average benchmarking award of an average of 9% to public servants, politicians and pensioners, was a fraud.
The Government cannot of course make a simple argument on this issue because it would have to admit participating in a huge scam on the public purse.
The publicly funded Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the Central Statistics Office and academics on the public payroll, have all presented research and data showing that there is a big pay premium in public employment.
Now that the facts are unpalatable, there are no calls for so-called benchmarking.
Like the old Northern Unionists, the slogan is:"not an inch."
As for the unemployed, it's "let them eat cake."
How long will it take to create 200,000 new sustainable jobs in this economy?
In 2004, ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) published research, which showed that the basis of the 9% benchmarking payment was a sham: Public-Private Wage Differentials in Ireland, 1994-2001.
The authors estimated that in 2001, the public sector premium comparing similar jobs was 13%. Public sector premiums in the late 1990s were in the range 4-6% in France, Italy and the UK.
Finfacts report Oct 09, 2009: ESRI paper confirms Irish public/private pay premium for comparable jobs jumped from 14% to 26% in 2003/2006
So facts simply don't count.
The 2004 ESRI paper, which included among its authors, economist Jim O'Leary, who resigned from the Public Service Benchmarking Body (PSBB) midway through its deliberations, noted: "A curious feature of the PSBB’s report is that it furnished no specific justification for any of the pay increases it proposed. Instead, it provided a generalised rationale for its corpus of recommendations that echoed its terms of reference and cited a number of broad considerations."
Collective power is what counts in the Irish system be it a tractorcade from farmers or responding to union threats.
It's easy to blame "greedy bankers" for the mess.
The trade union leaders and other vested interests should also have a good look in the mirror.
Finfacts article, Oct 29, 2009: IBEC delivers Irish tribal conservatism not needed radicalism
