Civil servants consider September strike over 'insulting' pay offer

Strike action, like this one in 2019, could take place in September, according to Nipsa

Civil servants in Northern Ireland feel so insulted and angry that they are considering a general strike over pay in September, the general secretary of the Nipsa trade union has said.

Carmel Gates told the BBC's Sunday Politics programme a recent pay offer of £552 has left union members feeling "very badly treated by a secretary of state".

She said civil servants felt they needed to "make a bigger noise".

Some are questioning their futures.

Northern Ireland's civil servants "have been treated worse than any other public servants and yet they're the ones who are now carrying the can for all the extra work [Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris] has given Stormont departments," due to budget cuts, Ms Gates said.

She added: "Unless there is additional funding, not just for the services but for the professionals and the people who work in them, then the services are going to suffer."

Ms Gates said cuts have already had a huge impact on services and that workers including teachers, health workers and civil servants are beginning to doubt whether they should remain in the public service.

"If you want to decent public services then you have to pay public servants a decent wage," she said.

Carmel Gates says she has spoken to all of Northern Ireland's main political parties about the pay issue

In January, workers were offered a pay rise of £552, backdated to August 2022.

It is worth less than two percent to a typical member of staff.

Trade unions had called for a rise in line with inflation, plus five percent, and thousands went on strike in April.

• NI civil servant pay award implemented despite strike

Ms Gates said there is currently no prospect of a better pay offer for staff.

"It [£552] amounts to seven or eight pounds a week - absolutely negligible in the overall scheme of things and how everything has increased," she said.

She added that civil servants in Great Britain who had already received a bigger pay offer than their Northern Ireland counterparts had been offered a compensatory payment of £1,500, but unions in Northern Ireland had been given no indication that extra payment will be forthcoming.

Asked about plans for a general strike in the autumn, Ms Gates said: "I believe that we need to take wider action to ensure the message gets across."

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office said the UK government had no authority to negotiate pay in Northern Ireland.

"The secretary of state's priority is to see the return of locally elected, accountable and effective devolved government, which is the best way for Northern Ireland to be governed," they added.