Public sector pay talks break down overnight without a deal

Talks adjourned without agreement around 3am with both sides far apart following union demands for extra payments to offset inflation hikes.

The Workplace Relations Commission has asked the parties to reflect on whether there is the possibility of a return to talks.

A 1pc pay rise is due under the current Building Momentum agreement in October, following pay rises of up to 2pc since the start of last year.

Chief negotiator and Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said a “significant difference” remains between the positions of the two sides.

“While some progress was recorded, unfortunately the terms on offer were not something we felt we could recommend,” he told RTE.

“We will now proceed to brief the affiliate unions of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions later this morning.

“We note that the Workplace Relations Commission has asked both sides to reflect and we will be available in the even that they decide that further progress may be possible, even at short notice.”

He said he did not know if the gap between the parties could be bridged and said the other side was not prepared to move.

Members of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions public services committee will brief union representatives this morning.

Earlier this week, Mr Callinan warned that talks to review the current pay deal for 340,000 public servants will fail if a “living standards deficit” is not adequately addressed.

In an email to members of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ public services committee he said while figures the real-term shortfall between “modest” pay increases in the current agreement and living costs is “substantial and could yet grow”.

He calculates that last year the gap between increases due – if annualised - and inflation was 2.15pc.

Mr Callinan says if inflation averages 7pc this year, “and it could be higher”, the gap would be 6.75pc.

He said Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Michael McGrath wants a deal done before the October Budget, and the committee officers agreed, at the Government’s request, to discuss extending Building Momentum into 2023.

“We have been equally clear that this cannot be a substitute for addressing the 2021-2022 living standards deficit,” said Mr Callinan, who is chairperson of the Public Services Committee (PSC).

“The current talks will fail if this deficit is not adequately addressed.

“We are working in good faith to avoid such an outcome, which would fundamentally destabilise Building Momentum and make impossible an extension of the agreement into 2023.”

Mr Callinan said the talks that have moved into a more intense phase this week are focused on two things.

The first is addressing the deficit between the pay increases set out in the Building Momentum agreement and the current shortfall in living standards caused by “unexpectedly high and persistent inflation”.

He said this led the public services committee to trigger the Building Momentum review clause in March.

The union leader noted that the minister subsequently said the Government was willing to go beyond the pay terms in the deal.

The second key concern, he said, is extending the Building Momentum agreement into 2023. He said the minister indicated that the Government wants certainty over the public service pay bill at a time of “economic and geopolitical volatility”.