Port Workers protest in Dublin Docks

Today striking Dublin port workers have been holding protest marches in the docks area of the capital over job cuts, redundancy terms and planned changes to pay and conditions.

Marches organised by port and dock workers, their families and supporters have taken place on both sides of the East Link Bridge, proceeding to the Marine Terminals Company offices at the port.

The workers, who are members of SIPTU (Ireland's largest trade union), are striking to show their opposition to attempts to de-unionise the port company, and their dispute with the management is now in its eighth week.

Motorists had been warned to expect delays until this afternoon, but AA Roadwatch - the Automobile Association's monitoring service - says that traffic in Dublin is "moving well".

Joe Mooney, spokesman for the Dublin Port Workers Support Group, has called on the Dublin Port Company to intervene in the dispute and to come to a "satisfactory settlement" with the workers. But for the time being the strike continues.

ECA accepts Pay Rise for Electricians

The Irish Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA) has decided to accept the Labour Court's recommendation in the dispute between electricians and their employers.

The court recommended a 4.9% phased increase in pay, which would be phased in by means of a 2.5% increase in September, with the remaining 2.4% introduced on January 1st, 2010.

The Association of Electrical Contractors of Ireland (AECI), which represents around 200 smaller electrical contractors, is due to meet in Portlaoise, Co. Laois on Saturday to consider its response to the recommendation.

Around 10,000 electricians returned to work on Monday after a week-long nation-wide strike that disrupted work at hundreds of construction sites in Ireland. (see also my entries of July 6th & July 13th)

Irish Electricians return to Work

Thousands of Irish electricians have returned to their work this morning after the Labour Court recommended that they should receive a 4.9% pay rise.

The Technical, Engineering & Electrical Union (TEEU), which represents most of the electricians, suspended its week-long strike after holding an executive meeting at their head office in Dublin yesterday.

Last Monday morning at 5.30am the strike began with TEEU pickets (photo left) being placed at hundreds of construction sites all across the country. (see my entry of July 6th)
The industrial action, which was the first major strike in Ireland in years, disrupted the work on many buildings, including landmark projects such as Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport and the new national Football and Rugby stadium on Dublin's Lansdowne Road. And - to the delight of the local Shell to Sea protest group - there were TEEU pickets also at the controversial Shell gas refinery at Bellanaboy in northern Co. Mayo.

There was strong support for the strike from almost all Irish electricians, and also a predominantly positive reaction to it from the media and the general population. Only the leaders of employers' organisations, such as former PD party president and junior minister Tom Parlon (photo right), who became the Director General of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) only weeks after he lost his seat in the Dáil (and with it his ministerial job) in the 2007 general election, were strongly opposed to the electricians' strike. Tom Parlon used the most offensive language of all the industry leaders, calling the TEEU "a bunch of lunatics" in an interview with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1.

Now that the Labour Court has spoken, the dispute should be settled. But the employers, whose attempt to con the electricians out of an agreed deal and impose a 10% pay cut on top of it, have not yet responded to the Labour Court recommendation. It will be their decision if normality is to return to the industry, or if there will be more industrial action.

The TEEU has warned that it will consider reintroducing the strike if employers do not accept the pay rise. And in my opinion they are quite right to keep this option open. We have seen what the likes of Tom Parlon have done to the country, and now they want to do even more damage by reducing workers' pay, while they themselves go home with large salaries each month. There is already a deep divide between rich and poor in Ireland, and if we let the employers make this rift even wider, all we will get in return is more unemployment and considerable social unrest.

The Emerald Islander

Over 10,000 Irish Electricians on Strike

Today more than 10,000 Irish electricians have followed a call from the Technical, Engineering & Electrical Union (TEEU) and went on strike in a dispute over pay.
The action follows the collapse of talks at the Labour Relations Commission over the weekend.

At 5.30am this morning pickets have been placed on hundreds of construction sites around the country, including some of the most high-profile projects such Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport, the Lansdowne Road stadium in Dublin and the Corrib gas pipeline in Co. Mayo.
The TEEU says that the drivers of many trucks have refused to cross the picket lines.

About 200 TEEU members are also picketing the building site of the large Shell gas refinery complex at Bellanaboy, Co. Mayo (right), which has seen many demonstrations in the ongoing dispute over the Corrib gas project for more than seven years.
(for details see my entries of April 28th, July 24th, September 14th, 19th & 24th, November 7th, 2008 and May 10th, 2009)

Electricians say they are looking for an 11% increase in pay, which is due to them since the peak of the economic boom four years ago.
The employers argue that this claim is "unrealistic in the current economic climate" and demand a 10% pay cut from the electricians.

A spokesman for the TEEU explained this morning that the combined affect of the employers' recent demands and their persistent refusal to honour the long agreed 11% pay rise would mean a "de facto pay cut of 21% for electricians".
"This would put an unacceptable burden on Ireland's electricians", he added, "more than twice as much as the 10% pension levy imposed on civil servants."

There have been several efforts to avoid a strike in recent weeks, involving the Labour Court and the Labour Relations Commission. But since both sides stuck firmly to their positions, no compromise was found and the TEEU proceeded with the strike action it had threatened for some time.

Besides the TEEU, which represents the majority of the country's electricians and engineers, Ireland's largest trade union SIPTU is backing the strikers as well.
In a statement SIPTU's general president Jack O'Connor (left) said that "the electricians must be supported by workers, because the employers' objective of cutting pay reflects the aim of the wealthy to protect their assets and privileged positions at the expense of the working people".

In an already turbulent and recession-hit economy, this strike - the first major industrial action in Ireland for a long time - will certainly increase tensions in employer-union relations. It will also put further pressure on the already hapless and beleaguered government, which has so far kept quiet on the issue in public, but sides clearly with the employers behind the scenes.

It can be expected that both sides will watch carefully how the strike is progressing and what the public reactions will be.
If participation stays as high as it is on day one and there is no substantial public outcry against it, it is only a question of time when the employers will return to the negotiating table with an improved offer. From today's perspective the TEEU and their members seem to be clearly in the stronger position.

The Emerald Islander

ICTU accepts new National Wage Agreement

Today a Special Delegate Conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has voted to accept the new National Wage Agreement negotiated in September and signed on September 17th. (see my entry of that day)

The president of the country's largest union, SIPTU, called on the Irish government to withhold state contracts from employers who fail to comply with the new agreement.
Speaking at the conference, Jack O'Connor (photo) said that employers who reneged on their obligations were "guilty of nothing short of national sabotage".

Last Friday it was clear that the vast majority of Irish trade unions had given the green light to the new National Wage Agreement - albeit reluctantly - and even its strongest advocates acknowledged its shortcomings. (see my entry of November 15th)

The country's second largest trade union, UNITE (formerly AGTWU), which voted against the agreement, blamed inadequate provisions on pay pensions and union negotiating rights.

However, speaker after speaker acknowledged that in the current economic climate there was no prospect of securing anything better outside national partnership negotiations. Unions will now push for full speedy implementation of every promise - particularly on employment rights.

The Irish Business & Employers' Confederation (IBEC) will endorse the deal later today, though the Construction Industry Federation is still not guaranteed to accept it at all.

Meanwhile the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association (ISME) has called on the government to suspend the national pay terms, in the interests of the economy.

ISME warned that it was "self-evident that wage increases will exacerbate an already perilous economic situation and, if granted, will drive companies to enforced closure, condemning more people to redundancy".
It is more than unlikely that their arguments will find much support and that the government will follow their advice.

Most Unions accept new Wage Agreement

Most Irish trade unions have now accepted the draft national wage agreement which was agreed upon by the Social Partners in Dublin on September 17th. (see my entry of that day)

Yesterday SIPTU, Ireland's largest union, voted to accept and earlier members of ten other trade unions also voted in favour of the new agreement as well.
IMPACT and Mandate meanwhile confirmed that their members voted overwhelmingly for the proposed deal, too.

The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) announced that its members, who are employed throughout the public health service, have voted in favour, and so has the construction sector trade union UCATT, whose members voted by a margin of five to one to accept the terms of the draft agreement.

To no-one's surprise the Association of Higher Civil & Public Servants, which represents 3300 members, accepted the deal with a majority of 93%.
And the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) followed closely with 90% in favour.

However, the country's second-largest union UNITE (formerly AGTWU), which represents many members across a wide range of sectors including transport and public services, voted with a clear majority to reject the offer.
UNITE is affiliated to the largest UK union of the same name. What consequences their rejection will have is at this time not certain.

Two Unions call for Rejection of Pay Deal

The Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU), which represents 13,000 lower paid civil servants, is to recommend that its members vote to reject the new National Pay Agreement when they ballot on it over the coming weeks.

The executive of the union voted to recommend rejection of the deal narrowly by a margin of nine votes to eight.
General Secretary Blair Horan (photo) had wanted the deal put to members without any recommendation, but the executive overruled his view.

It is understood that the CPSU executive were concerned about the low level of the pay increase of 6% over 21 months, the 11-month pay pause and the linking of general increases to change and modernisation.

Blair Horan acknowledged that the pay deal was "far from ideal", but said he believed it was "the best deal that could be negotiated in the current difficult circumstances".

Ireland's second largest trade union, UNITE, has already recommended that its members should reject the deal.
However, the largest public service union IMPACT has recommended acceptance.

It remains to be seen whether members will vote to accept or reject the deal in light of the ever worsening economic situation.

Agreement reached in National Pay Talks

This morning - after months of general talks and weeks of intensive negotiations - the Social Partners have eventually reached a new National Wage Agreement for the Republic of Ireland.

The last session with representatives of employers and all Irish trade unions went on for 22 hours and all through the night. Negotiators on both sides realised that they were already into the third day over the deadline set by the Taoiseach, and that might have helped their minds to sharpen and reach an agreement.

The result of the long and tedious talks is a pay increase of 6% for all workers, to be paid over 21 months.
The pay rise will be applied in two phases, with a 0.5% increase at the end of the agreement for workers earning less than € 430.49 per week, or around € 22,463 per annum.

All private sector workers will have a three-month pay pause. They will then receive a 3.5% increase over six months and a further 2.5% for the following year.

Public sector workers will have an 11-month pay pause from the last module of the Towards 2016 programme.
They will then receive 3.5% for the next nine months (commencing September 1st, 2009) and a further 2.5% for the remainder of the agreement.
The agreement also contains commitments on public service modernisation to reflect the latest OECD report.

Brian Cowen explained that the new agreement would include provisions to prevent employers using temporary agency workers to break strikes.
There will also be a statutory prohibition on victimisation of trade union members, and on inducements to encourage trade union members to leave their unions.

"The new National Pay Agreement will give a sense of confidence and stability in the challenging period ahead," the Taoiseach said earlier in Dublin.
"Even though the negotiations were very lengthy and complex, the Social Partners made commendable efforts to enable the terms of a draft Agreement to be identified."

Trade union leaders and the representatives of the employers' organisations are now putting the new draft agreement before their members for approval. There will be internal discussions and a detailed examination of the agreed terms, and a result is expected in about two weeks.

"This has been a long and arduous process, played out against a background of rapidly changing economic reality for workers and the economy as a whole," said Jimmy Kelly, Regional Secretary of Ireland's second-largest trade union UNITE, after the talks had ended and rows of exhausted negotiators emerged from Government Buildings in Dublin.

Turlough O'Sullivan, Director General of the employers' lobbying group IBEC, said there were "many positives in the deal".

The Emerald Islander

Still no positive Results at National Pay Talks

The General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has said he is less confident now that a new national pay deal can be agreed.

Arriving for further talks at Government Buildings in Dublin today, David Begg claimed that employers had been "unhelpful in portraying the trade union movement as a problem for competitiveness in the economy".
He added that "highly negative comments" seemed to fly in the face of everything the social partners were about.

Unions and employers have indicated there is still a significant gap between the two sides, as talks on a new national pay deal resumed once more this afternoon. (for more on this subject see my entries of May 14th & 15th, June 26th & 30th, July 6th, August 5th and September 8th & 12th)

Brendan McGinty of the employers' group IBEC said it was "only fair" to recognise that there is a "substantial gap" between the parties involved in this weekend's talks.

Shay Coady of the IMPACT trade union declared that his union believed a deal was possible this weekend. The country needed an agreement, and there was a requirement on all of the parties - ICTU, the government and IBEC - to do "whatever they can" to craft an agreement.

Today's discussions are expected to continue into the night. (If it were a football match, they would be in extra time by now...)

Taoiseach Brian Cowen had set a deadline of this weekend to try to reach a deal.

Increases agreed in a national wage deal apply to over 600,000 trade union members and set an unofficial pay benchmark for many more.
Employers and unions are also at odds on collective bargaining rights for unions, pensions, public service modernisation and agency workers.

As yet it is unclear whether the government will come up with any commitments that could bridge the gap between the two sides.

The Emerad Islander

No Progress made at National Pay Talks

Talks in Dublin to secure a new national wage agreement have been adjourned with no progress and are set to resume at 2.30 pm tomorrow. When they were restarted at the begin of the week, it had been the expressed aim of all sides to come to an agreement by Friday. But so far the gap between the positions of the Social Partners seems still to be large and unbridgeable.

Employers' negotiators arrived at Government Buildings earlier today for what is expected to be a three-day intensive push to secure an agreement.

David Begg (photo right), general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) described the next 24 hours as "crucial if there is to be any hope of securing a new agreement".

He said there would have to be movement over the weekend, if the one-week time frame to broker a deal - set by Taoiseach Brian Cowen - is to be met.

All the key issues were still in play and talking over the last four days had been about securing each other's position, he told the media in Dublin earlier today.

"The Government could not put proposals on the table until it knows whether an agreement is possible," he added.

Larry Broderick, general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA), said he was not confident that a deal could be reached. There had been no sign of movement from employers or the government.

All trade unions have warned that any new agreement must protect vulnerable, low-paid workers who have been worst hit by inflation.

Cowen to assess Prospects of Deal

Meanwhile Brian Cowen said an assessment would have to be made later today on whether progress can be made on the latest round of pay talks.

Speaking in Daingean (in his home county Offaly), the Taoiseach said it had been agreed that another week would be given to try and achieve a deal between both sides, but while the talks continued, it would be necessary to carry out an assessment to see if any progress could be made in extending the process.

National Pay Talks continue in Dublin

While the country as a whole (and especially the South East) is still recovering from yesterday's All Ireland Hurling finals, life goes on, focusing on more serious matters. In Dublin the crucial talks on a new national pay agreement continue in a gloomy atmosphere, overshadowed by the economic recession the country has fallen into after more than a decade of massive boom and excitement.

The employers' lobby group IBEC has eventually decided to join the talks this afternoon, while representatives of the trade unions and the government resumed negotiation this morning.

Going into the talks, some of the unions rejected out of hand the notion of a pay freeze, which has been mooted especially by IBEC (and supported by some members of the government).

Both employers and trade unions are trying to secure a new national pay agreement by Friday, but the signs are not particularly encouraging.

Betty Tyrrell-Collard of the CPSU - which represents lower paid public service workers - declared that a pay pause for her union's members would be "an absolute non-runner".
She said a pay pause for people who earn more than € 50,000 per year would be acceptable. But she added that clerical staff that are low paid and work hard to secure bonuses for higher paid positions could not suffer.

Jack O'Connor, general president of Ireland's largest trade union SIPTU, said he wanted to "make sure a deal could be done". But the unions would "not agree on an exercise to insulate businesses profits".
He refused to reveal details of what SIPTU would be demanding, but said that all unions needed to decide on a way forward.
"There is a broad consensus on a deal that will take the economic condition into consideration and protect lower paid workers," he stated before entering the talks.

John Douglas of the Mandate trade union (which has many members employed in the retail sector) said that "there will be no deal unless the low paid are protected".
He pointed out that the ball was in the court of the employers, and "something will have to be found to deal with the difficult issues for low paid workers, who have not been dealt with fairly in previous agreements". Now more than ever efforts were needed to deal with the low paid.

Larry Broderick of the Irish Bank Officials Association said he was not optimistic heading into the talks, adding that "the government needs to put something constructive on the table if the talks are to be successful".
He emphasised that his staff would not react well to a pay freeze and said that "a new structure is needed and new legislation on constructive bargaining as well". He also suggested a "flexible arrangement on pay at local level, so different approaches can be taken in different companies".

Peter McLoone, general secretary of IMPACT, said he hopes that at the end of the week a clear package for public sector workers will be on the table. What the government has in mind with regard to a public sector pay freeze "must be clear" and "the purchasing power of low paid people within the public sector must be protected".
"It makes no difference what sector you work in when it comes to buying products and trying to live."

Well, Mr. McLoone - as usual - puts things clear and simple as they are. And he is absolutely right with his statement. Given the massive and constant increases in the costs of living, especially the rocketing prices for food, fuel and electricity, this is the most important element in the pay talks for the vast majority of Irish people.

Taoiseach is "available to assist"

Meanwhile Taoiseach Brian Cowen has stated that "all sides in the talks must take account of the changed economic circumstances".
Speaking in Tullamore (in his home county Offally), Cowen said he would be "available to assist the parties on an ongoing basis, as I was indeed in the last phase, which - unfortunately - did not mean that the fact that I was available brought about a successful conclusion".

Asked if he was more optimistic about a successful outcome this time, Cowen declared that there was "a growing realisation that there are a lot of pressures in the economy". He added that the many job losses this year are "a reflection of the downturn in economic activity".

He said that "we do need to come up with an affordable solution for the medium term, so we can find space to bring about changes for the better" in what he called "a very challenging international environment".

Views differ after National Pay Talks collapsed

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan (left) is still "very hopeful" that an agreement between Irish trade unions and employers can be reached when pay talks reconvene in Dublin in three weeks time. The negotiations of the Social Partners over a new national wage agreement had collapsed without a result last weekend.

Mary Coughlan said there was "absolutely no acrimony between the sides" and it was "appropriate for Jack O'Connor of SIPTU to reflect that he was taken aback by headlines over the weekend". What happened in the breakdown should not be heightened in any way.

Meanwhile SIPTU president Jack O'Connor (right), head of the country's largest trade union, warned that employers who fail to address pay claims could face industrial action. He said that there had been "no indication that employers would adopt more reasonable approaches" if partnership talks were to resume.

However, Irish employers insist that excessive pay increases would "damage competitiveness" and trigger even more job losses.

The Tánaiste's comments came as bank workers were expected to press ahead with their claim for an increase of 10% in their pay over the next two years. The Irish Bank Officials Association is to meet in two weeks' time to discuss this claim.
The Association's general secretary, Larry Broderick, said that his union lodged its pay claim six months ago and that workers could not afford a pay pause.

The collapse of partnership talks has triggered a new push on pay, with private sector unions set to lodge pay claims this week on an employer-by-employer basis.
Unions say they must protect the interests of their members, whose pay has been eroded by inflation over the last two years.

The nation's employers' lobby group IBEC (Irish Business and Employers Confederation) is advising its member companies not to engage in local bargaining, at least until after the Taoiseach meets the Social Partners to review the situation at the end of the month. They fear excessive pay hikes would damage their competitiveness.

However, the SIPTU president warned that any direction by employers to refuse to engage with unions would contravene most collective agreements and could raise the prospect of industrial unrest. Jack O'Connor said there had been no indication that employers would adopt a more reasonable stance if talks resume - and in those circumstances unions have no alternative but to press ahead with claims against individual employers.

The Emerald Islander

No Deal involving Pay Cuts

Ireland's trade union leaders, arriving for today's pay talks at Government Buildings in Dublin, have warned that there will be no deal involving pay cuts.

Trade unions, employers and the government are attempting to reach a new National Wage Agreement amid growing concern about the worsening economic situation.

John Douglas (left), General Secretary of the Mandate trade union, said that his members in low-paid sectors could not afford cuts in salaries, as prices for food and fuel continued to rise.

Unions also warned that any cutbacks in services, particularly health and education, would be deal breakers.

Larry Broderick of the Irish Bank Officials Association acknowledged that there were challenges in the economy, but said that workers were being subjected to a pre-emptive strike by employers and the government.

The employers lobby group IBEC said that the economy was under pressure, with 7000 people joining the unemployment register each month.

IBEC's Director General Turlough O'Sullivan said that employers remain committed to social partnership and that any new deal must be good for Ireland and good for jobs.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen (right) warned that painful cutbacks are on the way as Exchequer returns have already experienced a shortfall of € 1.2 billion this year.

The economy is now in decline and apparently the government is powerless to control some of the key international factors involved, including oil and food prices.

Serious cutbacks are on the way in a bid to balance the books, the government announced. All the optimistic promises made by the government parties before the last general elections in May 2007 seem to be forgotten now, and all the extra money promised for major improvements will be spent by the end of this year.

The latest economic returns, out on Wednesday, will set the economic backdrop for negotiations.

For the last week, employers and trade unions have been sniping at each over the airwaves. IBEC wants continued investment in the national plan, but a pay freeze for workers.

Also on the agenda are tricky non-pay issues, including pensions, agency workers and collective bargaining rights. Many analysts believe the talks could drift on into the autumn, if they do not break down completely. The consequences of that could be disastrous for the already weakened Irish economy, prolong the recession and destroy most of the advantages Ireland has gained in the twelve years of the "Celtic Tiger" boom.

The Emerald Islander

Trade Union Leaders reject Pay Freeze Idea

The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), David Begg (right), has rejected a call from the employers group IBEC for a pay freeze to help tackle the economic recession. In a robust response he said that IBEC had "a brass neck to suggest pay restraint for low-paid workers at a time when many top executives are receiving millions in salaries".

David Begg was obviously angered by the call for a wage freeze and said that ICTU would make no sacrifices to continue the Social Partnership model. He outlined increasing pressures facing the average worker - especially the low paid - including food and fuel increases, and hikes in interest rates. For those people, he explained, a pay pause was "a non-starter" which he was not even prepared to entertain.
He stated that - because of inflation - many workers had already endured a pay freeze, if not a pay cut, over the past two years and added that he would not advocate sacrifices on behalf of workers to maintain social partnership in its current form when others in society had "their snouts in the trough".

The Taoiseach has declined to comment directly on David Begg's comments. Speaking on his way into an IBEC dinner in Dublin, Brian Cowen said that Mr. Begg was expressing his own view.

In a separate statement the Impact trade union has described the proposal of a pay freeze across the public service as "an absurd proposition".

The union’s general secretary, Peter McLoone (left) said that the suggestion was neither sensible nor acceptable, as workers would not support a social partnership deal which made no provision for a pay increase.

Speaking on RTE Radio, he said there was a large number of public sector workers whose pay was well below the average industrial wage.
“It is an unrealistic proposition to ask people of those levels of earnings to go without any increase for the duration of an agreement,” he explained.
“Very little progress” had been made at the partnership talks which commenced two months ago. All sides had yet to fully engage on the most important issues.

The Emerald Islander

IMPACT sees Benchmarking "dead in the Water"

IMPACT, Ireland's largest public service union, may reject any new national pay agreement unless the 'Benchmarking' pay determination system is radically reformed. Speaking at the IMPACT conference in Kilkenny, the union's General Secretary Peter McLoone (photo) said that as far as his members were concerned, 'Benchmarking' was "dead in the water", after not delivering pay increases to most of them.

McLoone said that voting on the next proposed pay agreement, which is currently negotiated, would be the first opportunity to vent the trade unions' frustration about what they saw as "a flawed mechanism".
But he warned if the outcome of the current pay negotiations included provision for another similar 'Benchmarking' process, he did not think his members would accept it. He also stressed that public servants should not and did not want to lead private sector pay in the labour market. The gap between higher and lower paid workers in the public service should not be getting wider and the same standards of fairness must be used to assess the pay of all, regardless of their place in the hierarchy.

Delegates at the conference endorsed a motion calling for a genuine review of the public service pay determination system to ensure that future pay comparisons are "made with good private sector employers", that genuine reforms of public services are rewarded and that individual pay anomalies can be addressed.

Earlier, Peter McLoone said that a new pay deal could well be achieved, but it must include progress on social objectives and public services. Despite big challenges "a deal is doable if all the social partners have enough ambition".

The Emerald Islander

IMPACT President criticises Irish Employers

The President of Ireland's largest public sector union, IMPACT, has openly accused Irish employers of "reaching new standards of double standards" by calling for wage restraint for workers, while top people's pay is soaring.

Finbarr O'Driscoll, who took over the leadership of IMPACT from Stephen Lyons earlier this year, called on business leaders "to show some glimmer of understanding of the rage and frustration felt by ordinary people", particularly when top earners award themselves huge pay increases, while telling the little people to tighten their belts.

Speaking at the opening of the union's biennial national delegate conference in Kilkenny, O'Driscoll said that unions needed to see evidence that employers still see partnership as a two-way street where all the parties make gains and sacrifices.

He claimed that in recent months they had witnessed what he called "emboldened employers, determined to row back on the rights, pensions and living standards of working people" and accused employers of "seeking to cut living standards with below-inflation pay rises, even as they awarded themselves big increases in their already huge salaries".

In the current national pay talks the unions needed increases that matched the rate of inflation, simply to maintain living standards.

"Most of the lectures on partnership and performance given to trade unions ahead of the national pay talks come from those who have done exceptionally well out of boardroom pay hikes or the report of the review body on top-level pay in the public sector", O'Driscoll said.

He accused profitable banks of increasing interest rates and leaving hardworking young couples to pay for the mess in the international money markets, which is of the banks' own making. He also slated retailers who hiked up prices for years on the basis of the high cost of the Pound Sterling, but who refused to reduce them when the value of that currency fell, as it currently does.

The powerful speech of the new IMPACT President shows that Ireland's largest public sector union (and second-largest union after SIPTU) is in good and strong hands and will not back down in the national pay negotiations.

The more than 55,000 members of IMPACT work in hundreds of public service occupations, grades and professions in health, local government and education, the civil service, and in many voluntary and community organisations.

The Emerald Islander

Our Dear Friends in RTÉ

If you thought that Bertie Ahern takes home a very large pay-packet, think again. Since he gave himself (and all his ministers) a hefty rise after winning the last general election, the Taoiseach is now the highest-paid political leader in the world, but he looks still like small fry compared with the three highest earners in our national broadcasting corporation.

Our dear friends in RTÉ, to whose words of wisdom and gossip we listen every day with great awe, are much better paid than our more than well remunerated politicians, without having any of the responsibilities a member of the government has ad officio.
And since we all contribute to these generous pay-packets with our license fee, we are entitled to know all about them. To satisfy our curiosity, RTÉ is obliged to publish a list of its top earners each year. Now that it is out, let's have a look at it.

Top of the list - and not only top o' the morning - is to no one's surprise Pat Kenny (right), whose annual pay-packet from RTÉ is € 849,139. Quite a nice nest egg for ten hours per week on Radio 1, plus the Late Late Show on TV every Friday (except for the long summer break). To be fair, he does have a very interesting radio show every weekday morning, and I often listen to him with great interest. If it however justifies such a large salary could be debatable.

No. 2 in the illustrious list is Radio 2 presenter Gerry Ryan, who takes home € 558,990 a year. Not as much as dear Pat, of course, but Ryan's appearances on TV cannot match those of Kenny, who regularly scores the highest audience numbers, both on radio and TV.

The third highest earner surprised me a little, since Marian Finucane now only works four hours a week - two each on Saturday and Sunday. For that she is paid the princely sum of € 455,190 per annum. (Who says that women are always paid less than men...)

Probably the best value for money is the (No. 4) salary of € 367,804 that RTÉ pays Liveline presenter Joe Duffy (left) every year. Having done some broadcasting myself, I know how stressful it can be to conduct live interviews and conversations over the phone, especially when they are with a lot of different people, most of which have neither radio experience nor speech training. And to make it even harder, many of them are either distressed or have axes to grind. That's a tough job, and Joe handles it really well, five times a week.

Only marginally smaller is the pay-packet for Ryan Tubridy, who comes in at No. 5 with € 346,667 per annum. Once again the money reflects work in both radio and TV, and being still a very young man, his income is likely to rise further in future.

Another surprise for me is the pay of presenter and wildlife enthusiast Derek Mooney (right), who ranks in 6th place with an (compared with some others) almost meager € 242,408 a year. Given the amount of work Mooney does on both radio and TV, I had expected him to be paid more than that, especially when one compares the quality and quantity of his appearances with some of the other top ten. But since he is also still young, he might well work himself further up the greasy pole in years to come.

The remaining four places in RTÉ's very own Top-Ten-List are occupied by Marty Whelan (No. 7) with an astonishing € 229,056 per annum, given that he has really not much to say, and even that comes across artificial and insincere; Miriam O'Callaghan (No. 8), who should spend some of her annual salary of € 221,383 on a few good speech and elocution lessons (from which we would all benefit by actually understanding what she is saying); John Kelly (No. 9) with € 204,675 a year; and Bryan Dobson (No. 10) whose annual pay-packet of € 193,610 appears almost small compared with some of the higher-ups. Nevertheless, even he would have to look long and hard to find an equally well-paid job elsewhere.

And now, that you know how a good part of your license fee is spent, you will listen to the radio and watch TV with a whole new sense of personal involvement, won't you?

The Emerald Islander