Schools, Courts And Hospital Workers Threaten Walkout

The State's schools, courts and hospitals are facing mass walkouts as the threat of major strike action escalates over public sector pay cuts.

Some 300,000 workers are to take part in coordinated industrial action as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) warned ministers to restore wage rates or deal with the consequences.

The ICTU said today that a group of economic experts, including Congress Economic Advisor Paul Sweeney, have signed an open letter to the Government saying its policies are failing and will prolong the recession.

The letter has been signed by leading economists and analysts and was published in the Irish Times.

A spokesman for the ICTU said: "The Government's economic strategy is failing. The Irish recession has been deeper and longer than almost any other in the industrialised world. Consumer spending has collapsed while at the same time unemployment and emigration have soared. Crucially, investment has plummeted off the chart.

"Not only have Government policies failed to stem this haemorrhage, they have actively contributed to this collapse."

The threatened action includes schools closing for half or full days on a regional or county basis; health service workers staging two-hour stoppages affecting different regions at different times; gardaí refusing to use their own mobile phones, laptops and cameras and not cooperating with management over the conduct of criminal trials; civil servants taking strike action to target specific departments and services; and prison officers imposing an overtime ban.

The Government is so far resisting the pressure, insisting there is no hope of the mass industrial action forcing a U-turn on their pay cuts. However, it is believed a deal on future pay rates may be struck.

(DW/GK)