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IMPACT, Ireland’s largest public service union, today (Tuesday) said it was going to consult with members about the Government’s imposition of huge hikes in public service staff pension contributions and other measures announced this afternoon. The union, whose Central Executive Committee meets tomorrow (Wednesday), said the failure to agree measures to protect lower paid workers, or get a bigger contribution from business and the better off, made today’s announcement “extremely difficult” for ordinary workers to swallow.

The union said its members had accepted that they would have to make a significant contribution to solving the nation’s economic problems, which they had not caused. But it said the business community – including the banking, finance and property sectors - had failed to offer any tangible contribution to economic recovery. Neither had wealthy individuals been asked to make a comparable sacrifice. IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone said measures to achieve equality and fairness in dealing with the economic crisis, which had been agreed by Government and business in a ‘framework agreement’ last week, were “almost entirely absent” from today’s Government announcement.

“Workers are angry that the people who caused this mess have largely walked away scott-free, some of them underwritten by money taken out of the pockets of ordinary taxpayers, while workers in the public and private sector are being asked to pick up the tab. They accept that these are extraordinary circumstances and that they must contribute to economic recovery. But they cannot understand why the entire burden of recovery has so far been placed on ordinary working people, particularly when their unions had offered to back a hefty sacrifice so long as others were also prepared to contribute,” he said.

Mr McLoone said today’s announcement meant a public servant earning €770 a week before tax would have pay an extra €52 pension hike a week on top of their existing tax, pension contributions and the new 1% levy. He said last night’s social partnership talks broke down because business and Government had failed to put forward tangible measures to share the burden of economic recovery.

Mr McLoone indicated that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ Public Services Committee would respond to the Taoiseach’s indication that he wanted to discuss implementation of today’s measures. But he said his union was “not in the business of discussing pain for our members in the absence of a contribution from business and the wealthy. Any discussions will only happen in the context of the Framework Document agreed by Government and IBEC last week,” he said.