A 23 per cent pay increase for many public servants has been delivered by the Sustaining Progress partnership programme, union members were told yesterday. Chris Dooley reports.
The final element of the programme, negotiated in pay talks last week, made Sustaining Progress one of "the best national deals ever negotiated", said IMPACT general secretary Mr Peter McLoone.
The union's central executive committee announced yesterday it was recommending acceptance of the latest deal to the union's 52,000 members.
It gives most workers a 5.5 per cent pay increase over 18 months; those earning €351 a week or less will receive an additional half per cent.
The increase follows the 7 per cent rise negotiated by unions and employers for the first 18 months of Sustaining Progress, which runs for three years.
Public servants who received benchmarking payments would get even more, Mr McLoone pointed out.
"A public servant who got the average benchmarking increase of 8.9 per cent will be earning 23 per cent more when Sustaining Progress expires in 2006," he said.
IMPACT members, who backed the first leg of the partnership programme by a margin of nine to one, will be balloted from next Monday. The union is to declare a result on July 27th.
The executive of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation has also decided to recommend acceptance of the deal, and it is to ballot members over the next three weeks.
In a circular to members, it said a significant element of the deal was the commitment to a new benchmarking process, which is to begin next year.
The acting general secretary of one of the main private sector unions, Mr Eamon Devoy of the TEEU, has also reacted positively to the deal.
However, the position of the country's biggest union, SIPTU, remains in doubt. Its president, Mr Jack O'Connor, says it will be up to members to judge the merits of the deal.
The union is to hold a special delegate conference on the issue on July 14th. Its executive will then decide whether to recommend acceptance or rejection of the deal before members begin balloting on July 19th.
The deadline for return of ballot papers is August 24th, eight days before the Irish Congress of Trade Unions holds a delegate conference to vote on ratification of the agreement.