It’s 148 pages long, which is a lot to get ones head around.

What is the report being published today?

The Government has received the report of the Commission on Public Service Pay this morning and it was published at midday. The Commission was set up last autumn in response to growing demands from public servants for pay rises and the impending end of the Lansdowne Road Agreement next year. It is intended to provide a starting point for new talks between the employers - ie, the Government - and the public sector trade unions with the intention of producing a new pay agreement this summer.

What exactly did it look at?

The report examines pay levels in the public sector, how they compare with private sector pay in Ireland, and also how Irish public servants are paid compared to their international counterparts. It was also tasked with considering the extent to which non-pay conditions in the public sector - job security and pension, principally - should be taken into account when deciding public sector pay levels.

What will that mean?

The Government believes that the pensions enjoyed by public sector workers and the fact that they enjoy complete job security should be given a monetary value - effectively operating as a discount on the pay levels. The public sector unions, not surprisingly, have a different view.

Are public servants paid more or less than private sector workers?

Depends on who you ask. The CSO data demonstrates that, yes, public sector workers are paid more than private sector workers (gardaí are on average the best-paid public servants). Other CSO research offers reasons for this - public sector jobs tend to be more highly qualified, it is a large organisation (which tend to pay better), and workers on slightly older, and so on. Private sector research tends to suggest that there is a greater public sector premium than research cited by the unions. But is clear that public servants are paid more - the only dispute is the reasons why.

What about pensions?

That’s sure to be an issue. Public servants enjoy vastly superior pension entitlements to most private sector workers, and the Government wants them to make a greater contribution. Almost all public sector workers already make pension contributions, and since the economic crash have been hit with the pension levy, pay cuts and tax increases. They are not in a mood to pay anything else - they want the pay cuts and the pension levy removed.

So what happens now?

The Government will invite the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to talks on a new national wage agreement, likely to begin at the end of May. If an agreement is reached, the unions will ballot on it over the summer. If accepted, its costs would be included in the Budget.

And if it’s not accepted?

Then we are into a major industrial relations conflict between the State’s 300,000 public servants and the Government. The Government has managed to keep a lid on this until now - but it’s been shaky enough.

Source: Irish Times