Athlone public servants come out in force

Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) members across Athlone took to the picket line in large numbers last week to vent their anger at the introduction of the Government pension levy, a step local civil service staff estimate will cut many of their weekly incomes by between €40 and €70 per week. Lower-ranking civil servants maintained the one-day strike at a number of sites in the town, including the Department of Education, Ballymahon Road, the Athlone branch of the Revenue Commissioners, Athlone Garda Station, the new Social Welfare offices on Grace Road, the Department of Agriculture offices and FAS on Thursday in a bid to highlight their plight and try and force the Government to scrap the controversial levy. As a result, the Social Welfare office and the Revenue office remained closed to the public for the day and phone lines were also unmanned at some of the affected centres. The Department of Social and Family Affairs said on Monday that some Illness Benefit and Occupational Injury Benefit payments would be issued one-day later than normal due to the action. A small number of jobseekers who were getting paid by cheque also experienced a delay in receiving their weekly payment. Despite the cool weather on Thursday last, spirits were high amid the clear frustration at the introduction of what local workers described as a pay-cut dressed up as a pension levy. 'Hands off our homes. Act - there is a fairer way,', 'Tax the rich not the lower paid', these were just a flavour of the banners capturing the mood and the message of the 350 workers in the Department of Education who took to the picketline in shifts from 8am to 7pm on the day. Sean Keane from Moate, a member of the National Executive of the CPSU, said the action was being taken because the levy would mean a pay cut of an average of between €45 and €60 per week. He branded the levy totally 'inequitable' pointing out that a worker on €35,000 a year was actually paying more than another on €38,000 per annum while correspondingly, that worker was forking more on the levy than another earning fifty thousand. 'Whoever came up with this they didn"t think it through and it"s not equitable and not fair. It"s not a pension levy, it"s a pay cut. We"re not contributing anything extra to our pensions which we have been contributing to all along by the way, and it"s not going to a pension fund. It"s going to prop up bankers, developers or builders as far as I know. It"s definitely not going to pensions,' he fumed. 'We don"t have a problem if everyone is treated equally and fairly. Take someone on €500,000, 5% of that compared to 5% of somebody on €20,000, there is no comparison. We don"t think it"s fair someone on €500,000 is paying the same as somebody on €20-30,000. It should be pro-rata the whole way up,' adding that the strike could be the first of many unless the levy was scrapped. Another on the picket line on the Ballymahon Road was Sinead Monaghan from Athlone. 'I think it"s terrible to take money off people who are earning a very small income, a very average income. We have to do something about it and we"re here today to show we are not willing to accept this pay cut. We"re doing this to protect our incomes for the future because next year there might be further cuts, they might increase taxes and we"ll be hit again.' She added the burden was being unfairly met by lower-rank civil servants, made up mainly of clerical and staff officers. 'No one in our union earns more than €45,000 a year. Clerical officers start on €23,000 a year and the maximum for a clerical officer is €37,000 a year, by and large the other unions earn more than us so it"s a massive hit for us because we"re lower paid than the higher paid civil servants,' she explained. Meanwhile, Sean Halligan from Drum, an employee of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, said the levy was going to cost him in region of €2,000 a year and that"s on top of a €10,000 pay cut he took to return home after transferring from the Department of Justice in Castlebar recently. 'It"s bad enough taking one hit but now I"m getting hit on the double. It seems very unfair the way the lower paid are been hit. I"m trying to build a house at the moment and that doesn"t look like it"s going to go ahead any time soon the way things are going,' he concluded.