Negotiations on public sector pay have concluded at the Workplace Relations Commission.
The details of a potential deal have not yet been announced, but it is understood the proposals include a pay increase worth 6.5% over two years.
This would come on top of a 2% increase already included in the existing public sector pay agreement, ‘Building Momentum’.
It is understood the new pay proposal will also include additional increases for lower paid public sector workers.
The Workplace Relations Commission is to issue a proposal document to all sides this morning with unions saying they will take the offer to their members before discussing any details of the agreement.
Irish Congress of Trade Unions President Kevin Callinan said it had been a particularly difficult negotiation.
“This has been very difficult and neither side has got exactly what they wanted from it,” Mr Callinan said.
“Terms have been concluded and the Workplace Relations Commission has placed a moratorium on their efforts to broker a deal.
“Out of respect to the people we represent, our affiliate unions, we are not going to say anything about the terms until after we meet them at 10am this morning after which a statement will issue,” he said.
“It’s always good when you conclude a process like this and this has been a particularly difficult one, it’s six months since we called for a review of the pay agreement.
“It will be a matter now for the Public Services Committee of ICTU and the individual unions to evaluate the terms and decide whether or not they should be put to ballots of individual unions and then we will decide at 10am how we take this forward,” Mr Callinan added.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath thanked the officials from his own department, unions, staff associations and staff at the WRC for their work.
“All parties have made a sincere and sustained commitment to reach agreement in very difficult circumstances. I will comment further shortly once we have the final proposal document from the WRC,” Mr McGrath said.
General Secretary of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors Antoinette Cunningham said once the proposal document has been issued, a meeting of the AGSI National Executive will be convened to discuss the details of the agreement.
“It’s been a long and difficult night here at the WRC, so we’ll await a document and we’ll see what it contains,” Ms Cunningham said.
“I think members will be happy to see that we have a document, the details contained within that remain to be seen but at least we have something to consider,” she added.
Public sector pay talks resumed at noon yesterday and continued through the night with a conclusion reached shortly after 6am.
The last round of talks ended without agreement in June after unions and staff associations rejected a 5% pay increase over two years saying it fell far short of inflation.
Source: rte.ie