The report on public sector pay published yesterday may have "done a lot of damage" to the confidence of unions and workers in the whole benchmarking process, a senior Ictu official said today.
Peter McLoone, the chairman of the Ictu public service committee and general secretary of Impact, added, however, that neither the Government nor the unions had the "stomach" to return to the "chaos and the conflict" of the late 80s and early 90s.
Peter McLoone, Ictu and Impact
He was speaking after a meeting of the public service committee to discuss the benchmarking report, which recommended pay rises for just 15 of 109 public service grades.
Mr McLoone warned that the report will make it difficult for unions to sustain the confidence of up to 300,000 members in the benchmarking process, ahead of national pay agreement talks due to start next month.
"I think it's fair to convey that the feeling among many of the unions...is that the report of the body may have done a lot of damage to the process itself," Mr McLoone said.
The benchmarking process had been established as an alternative to one that had involved individual pay claims and relativities, he added.
Mr McLoone said the committee today heard the initial reaction of unions and that it was one of "dismay and disappointment" that zero pay rises had been awarded to most public service grades.
However, he insisted the partnership process itself was not in trouble.
Mr McLoone said the Towards 2016agreement was operating within a 10-year framework but he admitted the talks on the second pay round of that deal, due to start next month, will be difficult.
The negotiations would be tough, not just because of pay and cost of living issues but because of other problems in the workplace such as agency workers' pay, he said.
"This outcome of benchmarking and how we are going to deal with public service pay going forward issue just becomes another agenda item to add to the list that already contains a lot of difficult issues."
Prior to the meeting Mr McLoone said that national agreement talks will have to "deliver pay increases significantly above inflation" to avoid "rejection by the workers that have hitherto been the bedrock of social partnership".
Mr McLoone said there had been no discussion at today's meeting of industrial action.
The general secretaries of the unions will now go back to consult with their respective executives and the negotiating committee will meet again in early February to decide on a collective approach to the next pay phase of Towards 2016.
Yesterday trade union Siptu said the benchmarking report reflected the "failure of Government to address growing disparities in society".
Siptu vice president Brendan Hayes said it confirmed a trend in the Irish economy where a "relentless war" has been waged on workers' wages and conditions.
But employers' group Ibec insisted the report brought "reality" into pay settlement in the public service.
Ibec director general Turlough O'Sullivan said that unlike the report of five years ago, yesterday's report acknowledged the State-backed pensions enjoyed by public sector employees.