Average pay in the Republic was 28 per cent lower than the EU average, the national secretary of the Manufacturing Science and Finance trade union said at the weekend.
Addressing the union's annual conference in Dromoland, Co Clare, Mr John Tierney said trade unionists were frustrated at the continued divergence in wages between the Republic and other EU states.
MSF represents more than 30,000 professional, technical and financial services members in Ireland and is soon to merge with the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union to form the second largest union in Britain and Ireland.
Mr Tierney, who was director of the National Centre for Partnership for the past year, said the union would play a key role in determining the shape of social partnership.
"We are now in the 14th year of national social partnership agreements," he said. "This model of pay determination never came closer to collapse than it did in the past 12 months. These strains were caused by various factors such as the unexpected increase in inflation and the special circumstances of the ASTI dispute."
The share of national income going into wages declined throughout the 1990s, he said. Productivity growth exceeded real wage growth by 2.5 times.
"Ireland fares somewhat better in the European league table when tax, social security and other deductions are taken into account. But even in net pay terms, we are still 14 per cent behind the EU average." In the late 1980s, 73 per cent of national income went to wage earners, the same as the EU average. "By the end of the 90s that share had declined to 63.7 per cent. It is now the lowest share in the EU and compares with an EU average of just under 70 per cent."
Mr Tierney said that the MSF had a motion down for the ICTU conference in July, calling for an industry-by-industry study on the extent of the wages divergence in the public and private sectors compared to other EU states. ICTU would need to review its approach before entering negotiations on a new partnership agreement, he said.
The union also called on the Government to drop its objection to the proposed EU directive on employee information and consultation. The directive will give workers in companies which employ more than 50 people the right to be consulted on developments.