A renewed attempt to secure agreement on implementation of benchmarking pay rises is to be made by public sector unions and the Government next week.
A number of sticking points in the civil service, health and education sectors remain to be resolved before payment of the increases is ensured. Pay increases averaging 8.9 per cent for public servants were recommended by the benchmarking body in July.
The first quarter of these is unconditional and backdated to December 2001, but the remaining 75 per cent is subject to staff agreeing a programme of modernisation and change. A number of the changes sought by the Government are being resisted by unions.
These include the demand that parent-teacher meetings be held outside school hours. There is also a requirement that health sector staff work under protest while disputes over workplace changes are processed.
Mr Liam Doran, the general secretary of the Irish Nurses' Organisation, said yesterday the type of change being sought by health service managers was "neither sustainable nor deliverable".
On the civil service side, proposed changes in recruitment and promotion methods continue to be a sticking point. Verification procedures, to ensure the terms of whatever agreement emerges are implemented, are also a source of contention.
Civil service unions are to meet on Monday morning to consider issues relevant to them, while negotiations on the wider public sector agenda are to resume that afternoon.
Negotiations between the social partners on a proposed successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness continued, meanwhile, at Government Buildings.
Arrangements for implementation of a new agreement were debated yesterday. Talks are to resume on Monday with a view to having an agreement in place before the end of the week.
