Five Galway City Council plumbers have been denied a benchmarking pay increase because of their refusal to disconnect water supplies to non-paying commercial customers. Their stance has cost them a pay rise of more than 13 per cent due in benchmarking and basic increases.
The decision to deny them the pay rise, however, could cause a wider dispute involving craft unions in other local authorities.
Their union, Amicus, will seek the support of other unions to have the decision overturned, although industrial action is not being contemplated for now.
The plumbers had been acting in accordance with union policy in refusing to switch off water supplies to commercial customers who have failed to pay metered water rates.
As a result, the performance verification group for the local authority sector decided earlier this month that the five did not qualify for their increase. The performance verification groups were set up last year to check that public servants were delivering agreed productivity increases in return for benchmarking.
Craft workers in local authorities are due an 8.5 per cent benchmarking increase, which is 50 per cent of the overall award, as well as basic increases of just over 5 per cent. Only the five Galway city plumbers, it is understood, have been told they are disqualified.
Mr Brian Gormley, a regional officer with Amicus, said the plumbers' refusal to disconnect water supplies was not a benchmarking issue, and they were entitled to receive the pay rises due to them.
The union's position was that workers should not be placed in the front line of local authorities' attempts to enforce payment of rates. Councils, he said, had other ways open to them of dealing with such matters.
In a statement, Galway City Council said verifying progress on the modernisation and change agenda was a matter for the performance verification group and it did not wish to comment "at this point".
