Speaking in advance of the general day of action organised by the Irish Congress of Trade unions, Assistant General Secretary, Gerry Murphy said:
The 18th of January will see the largest day of industrial action experienced here in a generation when trade unionists working across our public services strike in support of their reasonable demand for a fair pay rise.
A huge range of workers will simultaneously cease work for one day to highlight the fact that the Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris MP, remains unwilling to pay public servants a fair increase or even speak to the trade union leadership. Our offer of talks has gone unacknowledged.
These workers are widely respected in their communities, as educators, healers, administrators, transport operators and carers. They support the children and our elderly, they transport us safely, they deliver hundreds of specialised services for every person living here. And they have been underpaid and scorned by this government.
The moral case for fair pay has been conceded by Mr Heaton-Harris when he accepted that these essential public servants deserve an increase. He confirmed he has the money available to make the necessary payments. Yet he’s refusing to release the necessary funds.
His perverse reasoning appears to be that these salaries are a matter for the NI Executive and the local civil service to sort out with their employees. Does he really think that by withholding the funds to pay the increases he can generate sufficient political pressure on MLAs and Ministers to force those refusing to return, back into the Executive?
This is an ill-judged and cynical attempt to manipulate these workers and society more generally. Mr Heaton- Harris is clearly ignorant of the northern Irish character. His dismissive attitude partly explains the enormous levels of public support for these workers who have been left with no option but to strike.
The issue for our public servants is simple and it can be resolved now. All Mr Heaton-Harris has to do is the decent thing. Make the money available to pay public servants the fair increases that are due.
Continuing to withhold the monies will only further frustrate a workforce that wants no part of his political games. What workers want and workers deserve is a fair wage which will allow them to heat their homes and feed their families. Making ordinary working people and their families pawns in a failed political strategy has been exposed by the trade union movement as a morally bankrupt and pointless approach. Continuing down this pathway will compound further the already two decades of harm his government has inflicted on public servants and the services they strive to provide.
