I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £1,295,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1968, for payment of certain Remuneration.
This Supplementary Estimate is required mainly to meet the cost of extending the tenth round increase of £1 or 15/- a week to certain State-paid employees who have not already received it. A sum of £340,000 is also included for certain increases given to workers in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs through the conciliation and arbitration machinery.
In July 1966 agreement was reached at conciliation level for the granting of the tenth round increase with effect from 1 June, 1966 to civil servants earning under £1,200 a year. The agreement on the increase left it open to the Staff Side to claim the tenth round increase for staff earning over £1,200 a year if a pattern justifying an increase for this group emerged outside the civil service. A similar clause was included in the agreements on the increase for teachers. A £1,200 limit applied also to the tenth round increase for gardaí and members of the Defence Forces.
In recent months it has become clear that the £1,200 a year limit could not be justified on the basis of comparisons with other employments. In November, 1967, for instance, an arbitration award on a claim by local authority officers recommended the removal of the £1,200 limit which had applied to their tenth round increase.
In February last, the Civil Service General Council recommended the extension of the increase with effect from 1 June, 1966 to staff coming within the scope of the conciliation and arbitration scheme. I accepted this recommendation and later agreed to the extension of the increase to all civil servants with maxima less than that of Assistant Secretaries of Department— £3,850 a year. On 7th March the Conciliation Councils for the three groups of teachers recommended the abolition of the £1,200 a year limit that had applied. The limit that applied to gardaí and members of the Defence Forces has also been removed.
The increases did not apply to secretaries, assistant secretaries and equivalent ranks in the Civil Service.
