Local authorities are to demand extra funding to pay for the benchmarking pay rises, which they say cannot be funded from existing resources.
Councils say they face "serious problems" unless they can fully recoup the cost of the increases from the Department of the Environment and Local Government.
A spokesman for the Department dismissed the idea, saying local authorities knew about the benchmarking process from the beginning and should have made provision for it. Intensive lobbying of the Department on the issue by city and county managers is likely over the next two months, when budgets for next year are decided.
Mr John Fitzgerald, Dublin city manager, said other sectors of the public service would receive full recoupment of the cost of benchmarking, as they were funded directly by the Exchequer. Local authorities should not be treated any differently, he said.
Paying the increase would cost Dublin City Council €28 million a year, he said, and it was "inconceivable" that that money would not be recouped.
