Most of the county’s public servants will receive a pay boost of €2,000 under a deal reached between the Government and trade unions.
Some 300,000 staff will receive the money in phases between January 2016 and September 2017. The deal involves a reduction in the public service pension levy and a partial reversal of pay cuts put in place originally 2010.
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said the deal would cost €566 million over three years. He said the measures were affordable and would “secure a peaceful industrial relations environment until September 2018”.
Impact trade union said the agreement “achieves the essential objective of fairness, while at the same time offering greater benefit to lower paid public servants by using a flat rate pay adjustment”.
The union said that, under the first phase of the deal in 2016, the salary level above which the pension levy is payable increases to €24,750 from €15,000. Annual salaries of up to €24,000 are to increase by 2.5 per cent through a partial reversal of the 2010 public service pay cut with yearly salaries of between €24,001 and €31,000 rising by 1 per cent under the same mechanism.
The second phase will seen the pension levy threshold rise to €28,750.
“The combination of these measures in 2016 will improve all public service full time incomes by around €1,000 per annum,” Impact said.
Under the third phase, annual salaries of up to €65,000 are to increase by €1,000 per annum.
The measrues are subject to the ratification of the agreement by members of the affiliated unions.
Mr Howlin said he welcomed the agreement and thanked those involved in the process.
“I believe that it strikes the right balance between the legitimate aspirations of public servants for pay recovery and sustaining our improving public finances,” he said.
Mr Howlin said the deal “reinforces the ongoing commitment of public servants to the wider reform agenda in the public service”.
“It begins the process of unwinding the financial emergency measures in a prudent and sustainable fashion thereby reducing the risk to the sustainability of the public finances.”
Impact said unions had used the opportunity of the talks to raise a number of issues with the management side. These included professional registration fees, job evaluation in the health and education sectors and the contents of service level agreements for funded agencies.
Earlier on Friday last-minute objections by elements within the Government were being blamed for delays in finalising a new deal on pay restoration for about 300,000 staff in the public service.
