Thousands of Irish workers could be in line for a hefty lump sum payment as part of a new pay deal under consideration by public sector unions.
Public servants have been offered phased wage increases of 6.5% over the course of 18 months to October 2023, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has said. Key to the offer is the incentive of a lump sum payment before Christmas via a backdated increase of 3% in wages from February 2, 2022.
This payment would be paid very shortly after an agreement with government saying they would work quickly to process it amid a cost of living crisis. It would mean a pre-tax payment of just under €700 for a public sector worker earning €30,000, €1,125 for someone on €50,000 annually or over €2,000 for those already earning €100,000 or more per year.
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Along with that backdated payment, the revised package sees pay increases of 2% from March 1 2023; and 1.5% or €750, whichever is the greater, from October 1 2023.
This is in addition to 1% or €500, whichever is greater, due at the beginning of October 2022, the ICTU said on Tuesday.
Speaking on Newstalk on Tuesday evening, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath described this potential backdated lump sum payment as "attractive" saying that it could land in peoples' bank accounts in early November if agreed promptly by the unions.
Chairman of the ICTU’s public services committee Kevin Callinan said he believed the terms were the best that could be achieved through negotiations.
“We’ll now be explaining this package to union members, who will have the final say in ballots.
“Neither side has achieved all it sought, but this package is a significant improvement on the pay terms of Building Momentum, and it is worth more to those who need it most.
“This underlines the importance of the unions’ decision to invoke the review clause in the current agreement.”
At noon on Monday, Irish Government officials and unions representing more than 300,000 public servants such as gardai, nurses and teachers resumed negotiations aimed at reaching a new public sector pay deal.
Negotiations ended after 19 hours, finishing in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The Workplace Relations Commission has been brokering the negotiations, and information available about the new terms had been closely guarded as unions planned to update their membership with the details of the revised offer.
Ahead of the resumption of Monday’s negotiations, unions warned that they were preparing industrial action ballots, to commence at the end of August, with the aim of improving public sector pay amid the cost-of-living crisis.
In June, public sector workers rejected a pay increase of 5% from Government, arguing that it was not enough amid the high inflation rate.
The Consumer Price Index tracked inflation in Ireland at 9.1% in the year to June – the largest increase since 1984 when it was at a rate of 9.7%.
Speaking to RTE at the weekend ahead of the talks, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath said that “achieving a deal will require flexibility on both sides”.
“People will have to move on both sides. The government will have to make a revised offer, but it does take us to the limit of what we can afford to do in the context of Budget 2023,” he said.
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