*Teachers from St Senan’s NS on strike last month. Photograph: Joe Buckley.
OVER 400,000 public sector workers are set for wage hikes after a second national strike was prevented at the eleventh hour with a Clare teacher of the view future industrial action on pay is very unlikely.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, trade union officials negotiated a €5.2bn draft pay deal with the Government. The proposals will deliver pay increases of 10.75% over two years and nine months in a deal that will run to March 2029 for 420,000 public sector workers.
Talks concluded at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Wednesday morning with trade union officials emerging from the Workplace Relations Commission on Lansdowne Road after 4am. Unions are to now ballot their members with a decision expected next month from teachers, hospital workers and civil servants.
Former ASTI President, Geraldine O’Brien a teacher at St Joseph’s Community College in Kilkee was involved with talks until after midnight on Wednesday. She said the collective approach of all trade unions coming together was “an absolute factor” in the action garnering such strength. “This was all public service unions together which was most impactful”.
Geraldine told The Clare Echo, “They were marathon talks which went down to the eleventh hour or the eleventh hour and forty five minutes to be precise. It was of the Government’s own marking, the previous payment ran out in June and negotiations should have started before then but they didn’t happen. It caused unnecessary angst with trade unions and the public service unions decided to ballot for industrial action and all nineteen public service unions went on industrial action”.
Securing an agreement has not been easy, the home economics, biology and computer science teacher admitted. “Talks had broken down in September, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin (FF) intervened and then the three-person committee from the WRC were engaged and they with the union negotiators hammered out an agreement which was lengthy and in the words of Fórsa General Secretary Kevin Callinan were very difficult. I know for a fact they were in talks on Sunday, late into the night on Monday and last night until 4am. It wasn’t an easy agreement to work out, it is lengthy and running for a considerable length of time, it is running till March 2029”.
Based in Doonbeg, Geraldine felt the Government would be relieved to have avoided a strike on Thursday when the largest security operation in the history of the State takes place for the European Political Community meeting. “I am assuming all sides are breathing a sigh of relief, unions and the Government too because the rallies, particularly the Dublin ones would have been very impactful with European leaders in the country, the Government wouldn’t like that image. The Gardaí stepped down from work to rule and agreement has been reached with the solicitors on legal aid so the Government and trade unions must be relatively happy”.
Trust will take time to be restored, the Drumkeerin native outlined. “Teachers union are disappointed this morning that they had promised two percent up front for secondary school teachers engaging with the senior cycle redevelopment which is ongoing and they didn’t honour that, that is where we stand currently. There is an element of trust and it is very difficult when trust breaks down to repair it, that will be the legacy action to rebuild and repair trust”. Payments due in September 2025 were not honoured by the Government, she flagged. “There is a huge trust issue and that certainly needs to be rebuilt. The public support was tremendous during the first day of industrial action when we were standing outside schools. In Kilkee, cars passed and beeped their horns, some came with goodies for people on the picket line. We do acknowledge the support and without that the Government wouldn’t have come to the table”.
A final figure of 10.75% pay increases was only agreed at 11pm on Tuesday night, having been 10.25% at the beginning of discussions. “Initially the duration of the agreement was supposed to conclude in 2028 and it was pushed out to 2029, it wasn’t three years but two years and nine months, that had a big factor. The shorter the agreement the better the percentage for workers in the sense it is over shorter timeframe, when it was pushed out to 2029, they wanted an increase”.
Part of the teaching staff at St Joseph’s since its amalgamation in 1990, Geraldine does not foresee strike action from teachers in the near future. “Built into this pay agreement which wasn’t there previously, there was an element in the 2022 agreement but not as strong, there is a review clause built in, either side can invoke or trigger than in the event that either party is not honouring their part of the agreement, that part is significant. I don’t think there will be industrial action in relation to pay unless inflation soared out of all proportion”.
Ms O’Brien added, “Front-line workers do deserve a decent wage, at the same time we have to be mindful of the overall cost to the exchequer, there is not a budget with a bottomless pit and taxpayers want good value for money. Our teachers, nurses and Gardaí keep the country running smoothly”.
The proposed agreement would run from July 2026 to March 2029, and include the following pay terms:
- 1 September 2026 – a pay adjustment of 2% or a minimum payment of €1,200 whichever is the greater.
- 1 April 2027 – a pay adjustment of 1%.
- 1 August 2027 – a pay adjustment of 1% or a minimum payment of €600 whichever is the greater.
- November 2027 – a pay adjustment of 1.5% or a minimum payment of €900 whichever is the greater.
- 1 March 2028 – a pay adjustment of 1%.
- 1 June 2028 – a pay adjustment of 1% or a minimum payment of €600 whichever is the greater.
- 1 October 2028 – a pay adjustment of 1%.
- 1 March 2029 – implementation of the second phase of “local bargaining” of 1%.
- 2 March 2029 – a pay adjustment of 1.25% or a minimum payment of €750 whichever is the greater.
- The final phase of “local bargaining” will be implemented during the lifetime of the successor agreement to this agreement.
