The Northern Ireland Public Service Association (NIPSA) has rejected a new pay offer from the North's finance minister, Mr Barry Gardiner, to end a civil service pay strike.
NIPSA said it was now prepared to persist with its nine-month-old strike which has affected car-testing, slowed farmers' payments and delayed planning applications.
At any one time up to 500 of the North's civil servants are on sporadic strike action, but NIPSA is now threatening to escalate that action.
Mr Gardiner said the government was offering the civil servants a 4.65 per cent pay rise over 16 months backdated to April 1st this year.
Under the complicated pay scales affecting civil servants, he explained, this would mean increases of at least 3 per cent for all staff who are eligible for an increase and performing satisfactorily, and at least 4.5 per cent for more than half the staff.
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has been restricted to offering about 3.5 per cent over 12 months because of a British Treasury ruling. Mr Gardiner said he hoped that the 16-month element in the deal, which does not breach the Treasury requirements, would be accepted.
He said staff should consider the deal "carefully" before making a decision. "We have made a fair and reasonable offer for 2004 to the trade union and sought new negotiations on the way ahead for civil service pay," he added.
"A great deal has been written and said about Northern Ireland civil service pay in recent months. Over the past four years civil servants have had higher pay increases than their counterparts in the private sector, and have received increases comparable to the (British) civil service," he said.
"We need to see an end to the disruption of public services, and to stop the damage that is being done to Northern Ireland's reputation and economic competitiveness.
"The disruption to driver- and vehicle-testing is affecting small businesses, planning delays are frustrating for homeowners and hurting the economy and farmers are being hit by unacceptable delays in grant payments," the Minister said.
Mr John Corey, of NIPSA, rejecting the offer, said that in real terms the pay offer amounted to only 0.25 per cent, given that there was no increase in rates of pay for 2003. It did not bring them closer to a settlement.
The Sinn Féin MP for West Tyrone, Mr Pat Doherty, accused the NIO of attempting to deceive the public into believing that it had made a reasonable pay offer when "in reality it has just rehashed its previous unrealistic offer in a new format".
"When the fog of spin is cleared away, it is obvious that there is nothing new in this offer. Instead of attempting to bring an equitable resolution to the long-running dispute the NIO is attempting to deceive the public," he said.
"Senior civil service managers have been awarded pay rises of between 4 per cent and 9 per cent over consecutive years, yet ordinary civil service workers are being expected to accept having their pay frozen over the past two years and little prospect of any improvement over the next few years."
