Employers are to demand a number of changes to the benchmarking process when a new examination of public-sector pay rates begins this year.
Terms of reference for a new benchmarking body, which is to begin its work in July, are to be worked out in talks after Easter between public sector unions and the Government.
The body is to compare pay rates between the public and private sectors before issuing a report in July 2007. The last benchmarking exercise gave public servants an average pay increase of 8.9 per cent, in return for increased flexibility and improved customer service.
Public sector workers have since received 75 per cent of their benchmarking award, with the final 25 per cent instalment due on June 1st.
However, the employers' body, Ibec, claimed yesterday that the modernisation of the public service which was supposed to accompany the pay rises has yet to be delivered. Ibec director of industrial relations Brendan McGinty said: "Wholesale improvements in customer service and value-for-money were promised, but we are only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of delivery." He suggested that future benchmarking increases should be paid only when improvements to services had been delivered.
Mr McGinty said employers also wanted to ensure that on this occasion the cost to local authorities of the benchmarking was not passed on to customers.
Non-pay costs to business had risen by about 19 per cent in the past two years alone, he said.
These included increased waste, water and other infrastructural charges which were imposed to help pay for benchmarking. Ibec would also demand that the new benchmarking body take greater account of the advantage enjoyed by public servants in terms of pension entitlements.
Mr McGinty said that the delivery of industrial peace in the public service had been the "primary success" of benchmarking.
