Trade union leaders have questioned whether a new public service agreement on pay and other issues can now be reached with the Government. Unions said that the talks process with the Government was now “extremely fragile”. Public service union leaders on Thursday expressed “fury” over how they said talks on a proposed new accord to cover 340,000 State employees was being handled by the Department of Public Expenditure. Unions said following a meeting on Thursday morning that talks planned for Thursday afternoon with the Department of Public Expenditure would be “crucial”. The Department of Public Expenditure proposals – which were set out as modernisation reforms – in the current public service pay talks maintained that employees should be available over an entire week “to provide better services for the public” and that this could include Saturday and Sunday.

Source: The Irish Times December 03, 2020 13:56 UTC