GWU attacks government's proposals on collective agreement

The General Workers Union yesterday branded the government's proposals on the new civil service collective agreement as mainly being "austerity measures" rather than measures aimed at improving the conditions of work.

The union said the government was proposing a three-year wage freeze, with public sector workers receiving only cost-of-living increases, as well as a freeze on increments over the same period. The union issued a statement following the first meeting between unions and officials of the Office of the Prime Minister on the revision of the collective agreement, which will expire at the end of the year.

The GWU called the measure to freeze increments unjust. Workers who were still moving up the scale in the civil service structure would be stuck for three years, deprived of the annual increments to which they were entitled, it said.

The union said the government was also proposing that future recruits to the public service would not be entitled to any increments but would only receive a fixed salary. The union viewed this as a serious threat to the workers' disposable income, which would lower their standard of living.

Another drastic proposal, the GWU said, was to remove the three-month pre-retirement leave. The proposal was uncalled for since it was not fair to penalise everyone because of some who abused.

On the other hand, the GWU expressed satisfaction at the fact that the government had taken on board some of its proposals, namely to ensure that the next collective agreement would cover three years rather than five, to strengthen those conditions of work related to the needs of the family and the upbringing of children, and not to touch the half-days for public service employees except in cases where such a revision was really necessary.

The GWU's public sector section will be calling an urgent meeting of the executive committee to discuss the government's proposals.