THE IMPACT TRADE Union, the second largest in the State, will meet today to consider the proposals put forward in the successor to the Croke Park Agreement on public sector pay and reform.
The meeting comes as more trade unions have come out against the proposals that were hammered out with the government at the Labour Relations Commission earlier this week.
Balloting members in Impact will take between four and six weeks while the largest trade union in the country, Siptu, will not meet until next week.
The support of these two unions will be crucial to the government pushing through its reforms which include pay cuts for higher earners.
But the Teachers’ Union of Ireland and the Irish Federation of University Teachers have come out against the deal as have the Association of High Civil and Public Servants.
In addition to this opposition, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, the Irish Medical Organisation, Unite and Civil Public and Services Union walked out of talks on public sector pay and reforms last week, joining gardaí who had already left the talks.
Meanwhile the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) will meet again tomorrow evening having deferred a decision on whether or not to recommend the deal to its 32,000 members.
The union said in a statement issued this morning that at a meeting last night “grave concern” was expressed at the “significant financial impact” that cuts to salaries above €65,000 will have on some school leaders “grappling with already expanded responsibilities and stressful workloads”.
Sheila Nunan, the union’s general secretary, said in a statement: “These proposals took several weeks to negotiate. It is only right and proper that they receive detailed consideration because they will greatly affect many people’s livelihoods, careers and plans for retirement.”
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