IBEC has warned trade unions not to expect compensation for workers in financial services and the retail trade for handling the euro.
The Irish Bank Officials' Association and SIPTU are seeking pay increases for more than 20,000 members involved in the conversion to the euro next January. MSF is also expected to lodge claims.
Yesterday IBEC's director of industrial relations, Mr Brendan McGinty, accused unnamed unions of undermining the national effort to make a transition to the euro by making pay demands. He described this as "opportunism of the worst kind".
He urged employers to resist claims which he described as serious breaches of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
"In particular, the PPF contains a strong commitment to full and ongoing co-operation with change and the need for continued adaptation and flexibility. The introduction of the euro can only be seen in this light."
Many employers had already committed resources on staffing, training, health and safety. "This is not a time for pay concessions which will increase labour costs and cause further inflationary pressure and undermine competitiveness." Mr McGinty said IBEC would urge the National Implementation Body to take a strong line on the euro issue.
IBOA general secretary Mr Larry Broderick said payments had been made for extra work involved in the break with sterling and for dealing with the millennium bug.
SIPTU vice-president, Mr Jack O'Connor said there was nothing in the PPF to preclude productivity bargaining. He contrasted IBEC's stance on the euro with its silence over issues such as delivery of better health services under the PPF.
"It is the abject failure to develop our social infrastructure that will ultimately end social partnership and a consensus approach, not a few claims here or there on the euro."