Teachers will present a new pay claim to the Government once negotiations with the Garda Representative Association have concluded.
The general secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation, Mr Joe O'Toole, has confirmed that his union will use the precedent of the Garda claim, worth between six and 13 per cent, to seek additional increases for its 20,000 members in the Republic.
Unions representing another 90,000 teachers, civil servants, local government and health services personnel are likely to follow the INTO lead, creating a major public sector pay bill problem for the Government.
Mr O'Toole also confirmed he intends running for election as the next vice-president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, when the position falls vacant next year. If elected he would be automatically elected president of the congress in 2001 and, in both roles, would become the senior trade union negotiator on any successor to Partnership 2000.
Mr O'Toole is the first public sector trade union leader to acknowledge publicly that the successful conclusion of the Garda pay negotiations will herald an avalanche of claims from the public sector unions. If this happens then claims from the private sector are bound to follow, ensuring an effective renegotiation of the pay terms of Partnership 2000.
The general secretary of the ICTU, Mr Peter Cassells, and the director general of IBEC, Mr John Dunne, assured the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last month that the latest round of Garda pay talks would not breach the terms of national agreements. However, Mr O'Toole has now clearly signalled his own union does not accept this view and has voiced a widely held belief within the public service.
"I think the Garda are to be congratulated on their deal and the Government is to be complimented on the very generous, creative and progressive way they have interpreted the provisions of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work, and Partnership 2000," he said at the weekend.
The agreement to allow the Garda to revisit the restructuring clause of Partnership 2000 "represents a change in the Government's interpretation of the PCW which can be addressed by other public service unions in a number of ways". Mr O'Toole said it could mean "reopening the PCW" or, alternatively, it could mean "a more generous interpretation of the financial phase of Partnership 2000".
He points out that clause eight of the latter agreement's appendix on pay and conditions allows for a pay review "in the final year, in the light of economic and fiscal developments over the period of the agreement". It also allows for earlier reviews, "in the event of unforeseen changes in economic circumstances arising from EMU".
"The INTO executive has discussed this clause and will be discussing it again next month, and how it reflects on the claims of teachers," Mr O'Toole said. "When we raise our concerns we expect the Government to be generous in its response."
Mr O'Toole's negotiating skills are well appreciated in the Department of Finance. When it looked like the vote at the ICTU on Partnership 2000 hung on a knife edge, Mr O`Toole secured 3,000 promotional posts for his members and delivered their 17 votes to the Yes lobby in return.
Some delegates at the ICTU special delegate conference three days later heckled him, but Mr O'Toole replied defiantly: "We only took what has been lying in Government coffers for the past year. We didn't take anything we were not entitled to and we didn't eat anyone else's dinner along the way."
He rejects claims that public sector workers have done better than private sector employees. Over the past 20 years, he says that increases have averaged out. While some public sector workers have done well in restructuring deals under the PCW, he points out that some private sector workers have also done extremely well, especially in areas where there are skill shortages.
However, he accepts the economic rewards of the current boom are not being shared equally. Mr O'Toole believes there should be no new national agreement unless the national minimum wage of £4.40 an hour is implemented before Partnership 2000 expires.
Asked if he might not be overextending himself by adding the ICTU presidency to his jobs as assistant general secretary and an Independent member of the Seanad, Mr O'Toole replied: "If you want to get something done, get a busy person to do it, as my grandmother used to say." He says that he has used his position in the Seanad to promote ICTU policies, especially in legislation like the Employment Equality Bill and the Parental Leave Bill.