Pathetic pay rise for Northern Civil Servants

sligo | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis

Friday December 23, 2005 12:35

by John McGowan

Civil Servants across the North of Ireland were outraged by the paltry pay rise offered to them by Secretary of State Peter Hain.

Hain informed civil servants of the rise - 0.2% - after inflation, in a Christmas message emailed to all staff affected. Civil servants in the North, still an integral part of the UK, are paid less than their counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Britain.
When the minimum wage was raised in the UK civil servant bosses had to scramble to boost their staff wages in the North at the risk of being left in the embarrassing position of having state employees being paid under the legal minimum.
Public sector unions were outraged by Hain’s desultory Christmas message. John Corey of NIPSA said the deal was “not a pay increase”.
Over 20,000 civil servants will vote in the new year on the possibility of strike action to combat low wages. The mood among union members is militant and strike action is expected. However, unlike the Irish Ferries dispute in the Republic, the dispute does not look likely to capture the public imagination.
Former anti-apartheid activist turned Blairite lackey Hain admitted that the situation in the North was bad. He said it was wrong that it took 13 years for civil servants to reach the top level of pay. But he only gave a vague commitment to addressing the problem, saying he would look into the issue in “the future”.
Some have argued that the Irish Ferries dispute caught the media and publics imagination because it involved an influx of ‘foreign’ workers. This is not to denigrate the courageous action of unions who came out to support the strike. But there was undoubtedly a current of xenophobia which possible allowed the media (Independent News and Media apart) to feel comfortable promoting an other wise leftist agenda.
The potential strike in the North would allow unions in the South to show they are really interested in solidarity that they view their Northern comrades as equals, and that the Irish Ferries dispute did not only garner support because it involved an ‘invasion’ of foreigners.