Four of the State's largest unions have warned the Government of widespread dissatisfaction among their members on issues ranging from the proposed national minimum wage (NMW) to local pay bargaining. Failure to address these issues satisfactorily could affect the prospects for a new national agreement to succeed Partnership 2000.
The three teachers' unions, which feel that their 35,000 members lost out badly because they made early settlements under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work while "late" settlers such as the nurses and Garda did much better, held a joint meeting of their executives in Dublin yesterday morning to discuss pay.
Afterwards, in a joint statement, the leaders of the INTO, ASTI and TUI said that they would have to consider a common approach to any new agreement, including "new approaches to pursuing a claim for an increase in pay for teachers".
The general secretary of IMPACT, Mr Peter McLoone, said yesterday that the Government would be making a big mistake if it failed to increase significantly the NMW of £4.40 per hour proposed by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney. He was speaking after a meeting of the union's central executive.
IMPACT is the third major union to reject the £4.40 rate. SIPTU and Mandate have already called for a rate of around £4.80 per hour when the legislation is enacted next April. They, too, have warned that failure to set the rate at two-thirds of median earnings could jeopardise talks on a new agreement.
Now that IMPACT has joined them, this means that trade unions representing 60 per cent of the State's 500,000 trade unionists find the £4.40 rate unacceptable.