IMPACT members vote three to one in favour of Lansdowne Road Agreement
The agreement restores around €2,000 to the pay of most public servants in three phases between January 2016 and September 2017.
by Niall Shanahan
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| "The Lansdowne Road Agreement marks the first positive movement on public sector pay in more than eight years" - IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody |
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IMPACT members have voted three to one in favour of the Lansdowne Road Agreement. The ballot result, which was announced yesterday (6th July), saw 75% of IMPACT members vote in favour of the agreement, which extends the main provisions of the Haddington Road Agreement until September 2018, and restores around €2,000 to the pay of most public servants in three phases between January 2016 and September 2017.
The agreement is subject to ratification by an aggregate ballot of the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. This is expected to take place in the early autumn, once all of the public service unions complete their ballots.
IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody said that a series of information meetings, held in workplaces throughout the country during the three-week ballot, had encouraged IMPACT members to fully interrogate the provisions of the agreement.
Shay said “The Lansdowne Road Agreement marks the first positive movement on public sector pay in more than eight years, and the commencement of the process to unwind the emergency legislation that was used to cut pay during the economic crisis. It was important for IMPACT members to be fully informed about the agreement before casting their vote.”
He said this had encouraged a quality debate within the membership of IMPACT and that this was reflected in the ballot result.
Shay said that the increase to public sector worker incomes, from 1st January 2016, would boost domestic demand and support continuing economic growth. “Pay improvements in the public and private sectors will be spent in the domestic economy, in small and medium enterprises all over the country. That spending will help those businesses to grow, to create jobs and help to improve living standards.
“IMPACT has consistently argued that the whole country needs a pay rise after such a long period of wage stagnation. With pay improvements already taking place in the private sector, more noticeably since 2014, it makes sense for public sector pay to keep in step” he said.
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