TRADE UNION leaders met senior officials from the Department of the Taoiseach at Government Buildings yesterday to explore the prospects of a resumption of formal talks between the social partners on a new national pay agreement.
Employers' representatives will meet the same officials later in the week, but there are indications of a lack of enthusiasm among some employers about improving the offer they made before the talks were adjourned.
"The scale of the downturn has really begun to hit home over the past few weeks and some employers believe that they have offered too much already," said one source.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen was back in his office yesterday after his summer holidays, but is not expected to get involved in the process until next week at the earliest, when there may be some clarity about the outstanding issues in the talks.
A Government spokesman confirmed last night that engagement had recommenced between the unions and senior officials from the Taoiseach's department. He said talks with the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) would begin later in the week with a view to move into fuller engagement in the weeks ahead.
The unions side was led by the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg. Some union leaders and officials involved in the process are still on holidays and will not be back until next week.
When the long-running talks adjourned during the August bank holiday weekend, there was a fair degree of confidence on all sides that a deal could still be salvaged.
At that stage the employers had offered a 21-month deal involving a six-month pay pause, followed by a 2.5 per cent pay rise for six months and a further 2.5 per cent increase for nine months.
The unions argued against any pay pause, were seeking a pay deal of about 5 per cent a year to match inflation and were also pressing for flat-rate increases to protect lower-paid workers.
There were strong indications, though, that a compromise was possible. After the adjournment, Mr Begg said unions would have been prepared to accept a settlement that did not match inflation, as long as lower-paid workers were protected.
The Government, which is the biggest employer in the country, was also interested in a deal that would have involved inflation-matching flat-rate increases for the lower paid, and lower percentage pay rises for the better paid, public servants.
The director-general of Ibec, Turlough O'Sullivan, said he was encouraged by Mr Begg's remarks but warned that everybody in the process would have to want a deal for it to take place.
Ibec had opposed flat-rate increases for the lower-paid to match inflation, arguing that such a deal would result in job losses in hard-pressed home industry.
