Public service pay will get a boost from this week under the terms of the Building Momentum review.

While pay increases under the Building Momentum have been delayed in the HSE, Fórsa and other health unions are continuing to press the national health body to ensure that all pay terms are brought up to date.

The latest pay adjustment, which came into effect on Wednesday (1st March), boosts pay by 2%. The union-negotiated adjustment applies to staff across the civil and public service, ‘section 38’ organisations including voluntary hospitals, and non-commercial State agencies covered by Building Momentum.

The review of the agreement, which was negotiated by Fórsa and other unions in last year, expires at the end of 2023. Fórsa general secretary and ICTU president Kevin Callinan will lead unions in talks on a successor agreement, which are due to take place in the coming months.

Wage growth

As unions prepare for talks, the latest pay figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that average weekly earnings in the Irish economy rose by 4.2% last year.

That figure includes the 3% increase, backdated to February 2022, under the Building Momentum review, and the CSO noted that a disparity in pay increases over the course of the year, between public and private sector, is likely to reflect the once-off impact of backdated pay increases.

Meanwhile, the Morgan McKinley 2023 Irish Salary Guide expects wage growth to ease in 2023, claiming that recent wage increases have become “unsustainable.”

Responding to the report's findings, Kevin said wage increases had not led to diminutions in company profits, and that this was backed up by the CSO’s figures, which suggest that upward pay trends are not accelerating on the back of wider inflationary pressures.

He also warned that many workers are continuing to struggle with the high cost-of-living, as the February inflation rate saw an increase to 8%, up from 7.5% in January, attributed chiefly to food and transport costs.

Kevin added: "As the value of Government supports, such as the energy credit, are withdrawn this will have to be reflected in wage bargaining in both the public and private sectors."

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