DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish public sector trade unions on Thursday described a government offer to increase pay by around 8.5% over the next two and a half years as “extremely disappointing” and said a substantial gap remains on reaching a new pay deal.
Ireland has enjoyed broad industrial peace for more than a decade thanks to successive pay agreements with its 385,000 public servants.
The most recent deal expired at the end of December and talks on a successor broke up again without agreement in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Irish Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said the government’s offer totalling just under 2.9 billion euros ($3.2 billion) represented an increase of around 8.5% over two and a half years, with those on the lowest incomes set to benefit by around 12%.
“This was a very significant proposal put forward by the government with the objective of reaching agreement,” Donohoe told reporters, adding that the government remains available for further talks.
Kevin Callinan, the general secretary of the largest public sector union, Forsa, said he did not believe that the government came to the table with “a credible position”.
The unions, who are finalising plans to ballot members on potential industrial action should the talks fail, say any new deal needs to compensate members’ recent loss in real wages after the last pay deal failed to keep up with inflation.
Nominal wages per head across the economy grew by an average of 3.6% in the first half of 2023. The finance ministry forecast in October that wages would rise by 4.6% this year, 4.5% next year and 4.3% in 2026.
“We made progress in relation to the non-pay issues of a possible multi-year agreement. But I’m afraid to say that the opening offer from the government was extremely disappointing and the fact remains that there is a substantial gap between the parties in relation to pay,” Callinan said.
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(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)