IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody led a union delegation that met public spending minister Pascal Donohoe in Dublin last Monday (7^th November). The meeting was quickly convened after IMPACT and other unions reacted to an earlier Labour Court recommendation in the garda dispute, which went beyond the terms of the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA).

Cody, who also chairs ICTU’s Public Services Committee, told Minister Donohoe that early talks on an acceleration of pay recovery for all public servants were now essential. He said the large majority of public servants still wanted pay restoration to be managed through a negotiated public service-wide agreement. But he said this would not be possible if certain groups – whether inside or outside Lansdowne Road – were treated more favourably than others.

Following a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday (8^th November) Minister Donohoe acknowledged that the Labour Court recommendations in the garda dispute had wider implications. He also repeated that the Government was committed to a public service-wide agreement, although he stressed that there were budgetary constraints on further spending.

Meanwhile, the Public Service Pay Commission held its first meeting last week, and the possibility of its making an interim report, which could inform early talks, has been mooted. The outcome of garda ballots, which conclude later this month, will also need to be considered by all the parties.

At last week’s meeting with unions, Minister Donohoe also agreed to maintain contact with IMPACT and other unions on the matter. Unions have subsequently been in close contact with his departmental officials.

IMPACT’s Consultative Council, which is made up of representatives of all the union’s branches, will hear a report on these developments tomorrow (Tuesday) and a meeting of the full ICTU Public Services Committee takes place the following day. Shay Cody will tell the meetings that, if the Government agrees to accelerated negotiations, they are likely to take place early in the New Year.

The Labour Court issued the Garda recommendations late on Thursday 3^rd November. Next morning, IMPACT was the first union to say the proposals went beyond the terms of the LRA, and said they created “a material change in the situation.”

In a statement, IMPACT called on the Government “to make immediate arrangements for negotiations with ICTU’s Public Services Committee aimed at significantly accelerating the timetable for pay restoration and addressing any other issues that arise” from the Labour Court recommendations. IMPACT officials also set out the union’s case in a series of high-profile media appearances on Friday (4^th November) including RTÉ’s 6.01 news, TV3 news, UTV news and national radio.

IMPACT had also made a series of media interventions in the period leading up to the garda Labour Court recommendation, in which it warned that other claims would inevitably emerge if certain groups of public servants were seen to get ‘special treatment.’