People Before Profit councillors across Dublin have expressed their solidarity with local authority workers beginning work-to-rule action today as part of the wider public-sector pay dispute.
Workers in local authorities represented by Fórsa and SIPTU are among more than 100,000 public sector workers taking industrial action, following the failure to reach agreement on a successor to the last pay agreement which expired at the end of June.
DCC Group leader and Councillor for Dublin North West, Conor Reddy said:
“We are fully behind our local authority staff. As councillors, we see the work council staff do, often in extremely challenging circumstances, in services that have been understaffed and under-resourced for years. Workers are being asked to do more with less while living costs keep rising. They are absolutely right to fight to protect their living standards and for pay rises beyond inflation. Workers should not carry the burden of costs in a country as wealthy as Ireland. We should tax wealth and assets to improve pay and public services.”
After proposing an Area Committee motion in solidarity with DLR County Council staff, DLR County Council Group Leader, Melisa Halpin said:
“Nobody working in our local authorities wants disruption to services. These are the workers who keep essential public services running every day, and they know better than anyone how important those services are to our communities. If disruption occurs as this dispute escalates, responsibility lies with the Government for allowing matters to reach this point. The Minister needs to engage seriously with the unions and put forward a pay offer beyond inflation.”
South Dublin County Council Group Leader Jess Spear said:
“Years of under-resourcing has placed enormous pressure on local authority staff. The fact that so much continues to get done is testament to workers continually going above and beyond what is expected of them. A work-to-rule exposes exactly how much our public services depend on that goodwill. We are right behind workers withdrawing that goodwill and standing together for decent pay, staffing and properly resourced local authorities.”
The councillors called on the Government and Minister for Public Expenditure to urgently engage with public-service unions to resolve the dispute and deliver a pay agreement which protects workers’ living standards.