IMPACT has insisted that future pay comparisons between the public and private sector must be based on a fair assessment of individual public service grades and comparable private sector workers, not “absurd crude averages” of pay across the two sectors.

In their submission to the Government’s consultation on the soon-to-be-established Public Service Pay Commission, IMPACT and other public service unions also warn that comparisons of lower-paid public servants with “deplorable practices in some parts of the private sector” would not be acceptable.

There is a great deal of disagreement over how public and private sector salaries should be compared. Many economists and commentators point to wide gaps between economy-wide public and private sector pay averages as “proof” that public servants earn too much. But these crude averages don’t take account of the skills, responsibilities or other features of jobs in different sectors.

The ICTU Public Services Committee submission sets out how public-private pay comparisons can be done most accurately and fairly, saying that they should:

• Be between public and private sector workers doing equivalent work or work of equivalent value
• Be between public servants at the middle of their pay scales and private sector staff on middle to higher earnings, and
• Be between public service grades and similar staff from a representative sample of large employers – similar to the size of most public service organisations.

Unions also insist that the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) must avoid importing widening private sector gaps between high and low paid staff into the public service. And it says comparisons with private sector staff on unjustifiably low pay and “deplorable practices in some parts of the private sector” are unacceptable.

The submission also calls on the PSPC to take proper account of huge changes in public service pensions since 2004. And it says factors like allowances and security of tenure also became far less relevant in the public service during the crisis.

Unions gave the Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) initiative a guarded welcome when it was announced in July, saying it had the potential to assist in both the unwinding of the FEMPI legislation – which introduced pay cuts and pension levies during the crisis – and addressing other concerns like low entry pay in many public service jobs.

The ICTU submission echoes IMPACT’s concerns when addressing the composition of the body. It calls for a credible, independent chair with an in-depth knowledge of industrial relations, along with union and employer representatives and a third category from ‘academia and/or the financial world.”

Earlier in the summer, ICTU welcomed the Government’s assurance that the PSPC – due to be established later this year – will inform rather than replace pay negotiations between government and unions, and that any international comparisons of public service pay would “have due regard” to the cost of living in different countries. The latter is a significant safeguard because Ireland has one of the highest costs of living in the EU.

Read the ICTU Public Services Committee submission HERE.

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