Impact has described the proposal of a pay freeze across the public service as an “absurd proposition”.
The trade union’s general secretary, Peter McLoone said the suggestion was neither sensible nor acceptable as workers would not support a social partnership deal which made no provision for a pay increase.
Earlier this week, employer's group Ibec called for the introduction of a pay pause for public service employees in the wake of a report published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) which warned the country was slipping into recession.
Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said there was a large number of public sector workers’ whose pay was well below the average industrial wage.
Speaking on RTEthis morning, Mr McLoone said there was a large number of public sector workers' whose pay was well below the average industrial wage.
“It is an unrealistic proposition to ask people of those levels of earnings to go without any increase for the duration of an agreement,” he said.
Mr McLoone said “very little progress” had been made at the partnership talks which commenced two months ago and that all sides had yet to fully engage on the important issues.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday that painful corrective action would have to be taken to tackle the deteriorating economy if even more painful measures in the future were to be avoided.
In an address at the Ibec president's dinner at the Mansion House in Dublin, Mr Cowen appealed to people to remember the lessons of our recent history.
"One very stark lesson is the rapid and heavy price to be paid for fiscal irresponsibility. It may be relatively painful to have to apply a corrective course to the public finances, especially across the many desirable headings of current expenditure,” he said.
In an Irish Timesarticle in the wake of the ESRI forecast , Ibec director of policy Danny McCoy said the increase in unemployment was already giving rise to a greater degree of wage restraint in the private sector through market forces.
"This pay restraint must also be reflected in the job-secure public sector. The private sector will not be prepared to pay for higher public-sector pay growth by the loss of their jobs or businesses.
The rapid deterioration in the public finances has to be addressed. The only way of doing this, while sustaining Ireland's long-term prosperity, is by reining in current expenditure growth, whilst preserving much of the capital expenditure committed under the National Development Plan", he said.
However, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, said yesterday that a pay freeze was not possible and that Ibec had "a brass neck" in seeking a pay pause for public servants when it represented companies where senior executives were paid millions.