Trade unions will be more concerned with Ireland's top chief executives awarding themselves pay rises of "stratospheric proportions" than the Cabinet's decision defer pay awards when they go into pay talks early next year, says Siptu President Jack O'Connor.
Mr O'Connor said the situation was far more serious than the media has suggested, with the Review Body on Higher Remuneration, which dictated the politicians' pay award, excluding what chief executives in the top public limited companies had been awarding themselves because they had been granted awards of "stratospheric proportions".
The review body had focused instead on what the bottom quartile of chief executives had awarded themselves, he told RTÉ radio this morning. "If this is what came from a comparison with the bottom quartile what the people in the top quartile have been awarding themselves," Mr O'Connor said.
The Cabinet's decision was therefore unlikely to have much impact when trade unions enter into talks in the first quarter of 2008, he said.
"We live in the second most expensive country in Europe now, and they'll be looking at what other people at the top of their own companies are awarding themselves," he said.
The Irish Congress of Trades Unions made it clear yesterday that the Cabinet decision will make no difference to trade union demands for higher pay for workers in next year's pay talks.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday proposed to the Cabinet that it should reverse its October decision to accept the Review Body on Higher Remuneration's recommendations.
The original pay award, worth up to €38,000 in the case of Mr Ahern and €36,000 to each of his Ministers, was to have been back-dated to mid-September and paid in full by March 2009.
Mr Ahern decided the rise would be deferred until September, when a four per cent increase will be paid. Half of the rest is to be paid in September 2009 and the rest a year later. There will be no backdated payments.
However, 1,600 other top public officials, including judges, semi-state chief executives, military and Garda officers will all receive their increases backdated to mid-September, Mr Ahern made clear.
The Taoiseach said the Government was "mindful that the November exchequer figures were not as good as hoped".
In addition, the public service pay benchmarking report - which, unlike its predecessor, is expected to offer very little extra to civil servants - was "imminent", he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said it was "a cynical move by an arrogant and tired Cabinet". He claimed ministers would have seriously "misjudged the public's opinion on the issue" if they tried "quietly to up their salaries next year".
The Cabinet's decision will mean that the Chief Justice, Mr Justice John Murray and top secretaries general, who will each be entitled to €303,000 a year once the report is fully implemented, will earn more than the Taoiseach, whose salary is €271,000.