The trade union Unite has lodged a claim for a 5 per cent cost-of-living increase with the insurance company Hibernian.
The union said it would also be seeking a further rise for staff in local bargaining with the company, which it considers to be profitable. It said the amount to be sought would be determined in consultation with its members in the company.
The union also wants issues such as holiday leave, maternity and paternity arrangements as well as procedures for managing change and job security discussed as part of local bargaining with the company in the aftermath of the collapse of the national pay talks earlier this month.
Hibernian is understood to be the first company in the financial services sector to have received a pay claim from the union.
Unite said that a number of other claims were expected to be lodged over the days and weeks ahead in other companies in the financial services sector.
Hibernian did not comment on the pay claim yesterday.
The finance union IBOA, which represents staff in the banking sector, is expected to begin lodging pay claims on behalf of its members following a meeting of its executive next week.
The IBOA has said that it will seek increases of 10 per cent over two years.
Last week private sector trade unions agreed that they would look for basic increases of about 5 per cent - to match inflation - for workers above the average industrial earnings threshold of €38,000.
The unions are also to seek additional rises for employees in companies considered profitable.
The unions which are members of the private sector committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) last week also agreed to seek flat-rate increases of about €30 per week for more than a million workers earning less than the average industrial wage.
The country's largest union, Siptu last week initiated claims with about half a dozen major employers including Tesco, the CRH group, Glanbia and Britvic Ireland.
Siptu said at the time that it had sought meetings with the companies but had not put a figure on the amount it was seeking.
The employers' group Ibec has urged its members to acknowledge pay claims received from unions but to take no action until further talks on a national deal, which the Taoiseach Brian Cowen is expected to convene at the end of the month, take place.
Ibec has not given up on the prospect of a national deal being agreed with unions and the Government after the summer break.
