WHY IS LABOUR REWARDING UNION ALLIES WITH
STATE JOBS?
People Before Profit has condemned Joan
Burton’s decision to appoint the former ICTU General Secretary, David Begg, to
the post of chairperson of the Pensions Committee.
The part time post carries a salary of €20,000
a year and ensures that Mr Begg will earn €100,000 over the five year period of
his appointment.
‘This appointment is a disgraceful example of
old style patronage. Since 2011, there is supposed to be a new system in place
whereby positions on state boards must be advertised and the Public Appointment
Service then assess candidates who apply against transparent procedures.
‘In the dying days of her administration,
Joan Burton has invoked an exception clause to circumvent this procedure. She
has behaved exactly the same as FF Ministers did in the past in rewarding their
allies.
‘In the absence of a clear
appointment procedure it is perfectly legitimate to question if David Begg is being
rewarded for the role in played in getting the trade union movement to accept
the pro-austerity social partnership agreements which were detrimental to
workers.
‘Under his reign as ICTU General
Secretary, the unions agreed to the loss of 35,000 public sector jobs and a
cuts in pay that averaged 16% for public sector workers.
‘Mr Begg had previously served on
the board of the Central Bank and did not openly speak out about the Central
Bank’s failure to condemn the insane behaviour of Irish banks.
‘Workers will have little confidence
that David Begg will represent their interests on the pension Board.
‘But the Labour Party will be happy
that their outlook will be well represented.
