Public-sector pay: workers in line for pre-Christmas lump sum if €1.6bn deal approved

Public-sector workers will be in line for pre-Christmas lump-sum payments running into thousands of euro before tax if a proposed €1.6 billion pay deal is approved by unions.

The Government’s revised pay offer includes a 3 per cent increase for 2022, backdated to the start of February, which would be paid shortly after the new pay agreement is ratified.

If paid in November, pretax lump sums for the previous nine months would amount to €675 for a worker on a salary of €30,000, €1,125 for someone on €50,000 and €2,250 for a public servant being paid €100,000.

Read more on pay deal

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• Unions for teachers and nurses suspend ballots on industrial action to consider pay offer

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath said the payments were an “attractive” element of the proposed deal and they would be a way the Government could quickly provide assistance to public servants as he expressed hopes that the deal is signed off on by unions.

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Mr McGrath indicated during an interview with Newstalk radio that the payment date could be in early November.

Public-sector unions have said they will take five weeks to consider the Government’s revised 6.5 per cent pay offer before taking a collective decision on whether to accept it or reject the package on October 7th.

A previous offer of 5 per cent was rejected by unions in June as “not credible”.

A suspension of planned balloting for industrial action has been recommended by union negotiators — and unions representing nurses and teachers last night decided to suspend planned ballots on industrial action as they consider the proposed deal. However, negotiators also warned that a failure by the Government to deliver on cost-of-living measures in September’s budget would impact on the decision being made by workers on the proposed public pay deal.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the proposed agreement as a fair one and said the budget would further benefit families struggling to make ends meet.

A marathon 19 hours of public-sector pay talks concluded on Tuesday morning.

The proposals drawn up by the Workplace Relations Commission include three phases of new pay increases. Along with the 3 per cent backdated pay increase for 2022, a second 2 per cent increase would kick in from March 1st, 2023.

There would be another 1.5 per cent increase — or a minimum of €750 — from October 1st next year.

The €750 minimum is to ensure a greater percentage pay increase to lower paid workers.

The 6.5 per cent is in addition to the increases for most public-sector workers under the existing Building Momentum deal that the Government says amount to 3 per cent.

This includes a 1 per cent increase — or a €500 lump sum, whichever is greater — due to kick in next October 1st.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions president and public-services committee chairman Kevin Callinan said he believed the outcome was the best that could currently be achieved through negotiations after difficult talks.

Members across public sector unions are to vote on proposals in ballots ahead of the final decision on whether to accept the deal.

Mr Callinan also said workers would expect delivery of promised additional cost-of-living measures in the budget and warned: “A Government failure to deliver will certainly impact the ballots that will shortly get under way.”

Opposition politicians criticised the proposed deal.

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said the pay increases on offer would “not even reach current inflation rates”.

People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy said inflation could reach 15 per cent so the increases on offer represented “a major pay cut”.

Mr McGrath said the pay deal would not offset inflation but said there would also be measures in the budget to address cost-of-living pressures across society.

There was a mixed reaction from groups representing private-sector employers.

Neill McDonnell, the chief executive of Isme, which represents small and medium-sized enterprises, said there were crises in housing, inflation and the security of energy supply.

He said: “If we throw our budgetary space at the public sector, we diminish the ability to tackle the other, more urgent crises.”

Mr McGrath later said he believed the proposals to be “balanced and proportionate”.

Employers’ group Ibec said it was “positive” that a proposed agreement had resulted from negotiations.

Its director of employer relations, Maeve McElwee, said stability across the economy was “imperative”. “It is in everyone’s interest to have a co-ordinated approach to public-service pay determination and the competing demands for resources while averting the potential for damaging industrial relations unrest,” she said.