About 800 civil servants may lose out on the final phase of benchmarking awards due to be paid next month in a dispute over performance.
The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is also threatening to withhold a general pay increase worth 1.5 per cent to staff at the department.
Both pay awards are due to be paid on June 1st. The benchmarking pay rises are worth between 4and 7 per cent to public servants depending on their position and are the final payments due under the Sustaining Progress agreement 2003-2005.
All previous benchmarking awards have been recommended by the Department of Communications and subsequently sanctioned by the Department of Finance, which is managing the process.
However, Brendan Tuohy, secretary general of the Department of Communications, has recommended to the Government that it withhold the two pay rises until staff comply with the department's own strategic action plan.
In a letter to the Department of Finance, Mr Tuohy identifies two specific measures in the plan that have not yet been delivered by civil servants in the department.
The letter, seen by The Irish Times, says public servants have not completed "role profile" forms for managers. These would detail the exact work functions performed by staff members and would be circulated to managers.
It also outlines that the department has not yet been able to complete performance contracts with non-commercial State-sponsored bodies. These contracts would govern the relationship between bodies such as Sustainable Energy Ireland and the Department of Communications.
"My assessment is that the payment of the final phase of the benchmarking awards and the general round increase of 1.5 per cent to all grades of staff in the department should be held until after the signing of the performance contracts and completion of role profile forms," says Mr Tuohy in the letter, dated April 20th.
The letter prompted trade union representatives to convene an emergency meeting of the Central Partnership Committee, a body which has overseen implementation of benchmarking in the department. The Public Service Executive Union is also seeking an urgent meeting of a staff panel to consider a response to the letter. In an e-mail last week, a representative of the Public Service Executive Union on the department's Central Partnership Committee said the secretary general had failed to act in accordance with the Sustaining Progress partnership agreement by not discussing the recommendation in advance with the committee.
"The attitude and approach displayed to salary increases for staff is a significant slap in the face for all those who have tried to embrace the principles of partnership and to build a responsive and forward-looking approach to business management and the operation of a department," says the e-mail to certain staff.
Last night Mr Tuohy sought to play down the dispute over the benchmarking pay awards.
"I have no doubt that the outstanding issues will be sorted out before the deadline for payment by June 1st," he told The Irish Times. "There is plenty of time to facilitate the process."
The disclosure of a threat to withhold benchmarking awards comes at a sensitive time for the Government, which will begin work on a new benchmarking review in the second half of this year, with a report due in 2007.
A similar threat was made earlier this year to almost 2,500 public servants working in the Department of Social and Family Affairs because of a dispute over proposed new work practices.
It also emerged over the weekend that health service managers are seeking to withhold benchmarking awards worth 3.5 per cent from 30,000 nurses. The managers have cited the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) for breaching benchmarking and Sustaining Progress agreements over an alleged refusal to co-operate with plans for the introduction of new healthcare assistant posts in hospitals.
Last week new figures from the Central Statistics Office showed that public sector pay is rising twice as fast as national agreement pay rises in the private sector.