Unions urge Stormont to agree fair budget or face industrial action

Northern Ireland’s trade unions have warned Stormont that workers could begin an intensifying programme of industrial action unless the Executive agrees on what they call a fair budget.

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move things forward

The warning comes five months into the latest financial year, with no budget agreed for Northern Ireland. Stormont officials currently have legal authority to spend up to 95% of the funding allocated to their departments last year.

All the Stormont parties have said they need more money from London before they can reach agreement. Talks with the Treasury have continued, but no progress to secure additional funding appears to have been made. During his first official visit to Belfast last week, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he wanted to help “move things forward” on the budget crisis, while describing himself as still in “listening mode”.

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listening mode

The leadership of the region’s trade union movement met this week to discuss what it called “growing discontent among workers” in the private and public sectors. Irish Congress of Trade Unions assistant general secretary Gerry Murphy said unions had previously “forced the political class to face up to its responsibilities” and “will do so again”.

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forced the political class to face up to its responsibilities

In January 2024, an estimated 100,000 public sector workers joined rallies across Northern Ireland in the largest coordinated walkout in decades. Murphy said the action followed political stalemate, the absence of a budget and what unions described as inadequate funding from the UK government. He said the Executive had since been restored, but the same funding dispute remained, including the demand for financing equivalent to that provided in Scotland or Wales.

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will do so again