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Speaking after its meeting in Dublin today, PSC chairperson Peter McLoone said the forms of work stoppage were likely to vary to take account of different sectoral situations and the unions’ tactical judgements. “Since 25th January we have tried to exert pressure on the Government without widespread disruption to services. We have always said that escalation of the industrial action was inevitable unless there was progress towards a settlement. There has been no progress and the action is now going to escalate to include the withdrawal of labour,” he said.

Mr McLoone said the objective of the unions’ campaign was to achieve a negotiated solution that would reverse the pay cuts, protect future pay and pensions, and avoid compulsory redundancies. “The public service transformation proposals, put forward by the unions and rejected by Government last December, could be back on the table if the Government was prepared to say pay cuts could be reversed over time as savings are made through transformation. But the longer the industrial action goes on, the harder it will be to convince our members of the merits of such a deal or the Government’s capacity to deliver it in a fair and effective way,” he said.

Public servants’ gross incomes have been cut by up to 14% in the last year through pay cuts and the so-called ‘pension levy’. The unions reject the Government’s view that there is ‘no alternative’ to the pay cuts and say they put forward an alternative approach last year, which would have delivered the payroll savings required by the Government in 2010 while ensuring that vital services were protected and enhanced as expenditure and staff numbers continued to fall in future years.