Trade unions will begin to ballot their union members on the proposed public sector deal which will provide for pay increases of 10.25 per cent over two-and-a-half years.
The balloting period will run until March 25th, to allow time for all unions to consider the terms of the new agreement.
Government officials are finalising the proposals of the financial package which amounts to €3.6 billion spread over four budgets.
Negotiations on the deal ran into the early hours of Friday morning at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) headquarters in Lansdowne House.
In a meeting on Friday afternoon, the officers of the Public Services Committee (PSC) of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) briefed the 19 affiliate unions on the terms of the new public sector pay agreement.
The agreement was reached shortly before 9am on Friday, after almost 22 hours of continued talks at the WRC.
The affiliate unions were told the pay terms of the new agreement, valued at 10.25 per cent over two-and-a-half years, represented the “absolute maximum achievable” after months of challenging negotiations.
Unions will now begin to consider the terms of the deal and start the process of organising ballots of union members.
Unions were also told that the agreement provided for the implementation of a number of outstanding Labour Court recommendations, as well as provisions for Local Bargaining.
The proposals will see the 385,000 public servants getting a pay rise worth 10.25 per cent over two-and-a-half years.
Kevin Callinan, general secretary of the Fórsa union, said on Friday: “Well, just in the last few minutes the congress group has a finalised agreement with the Government side.
“I am conscious that some of our non-congress associations are still in discussion in relation to various matters and I’d like to respect that. We’ve worked closely with the Garda associations and the non-congress health unions.
“So we’ve reached a point where we’ve concluded pay terms totalling 10.25 per cent over two-and-a-half years.
“Like all of these things, we would have liked it to have been more but we have succeeded in improving the last Government offer on January 11th.
“We’ve got more money and we’ve got it sooner. So we will be taking that detail back to all our affiliates in a meeting (on Friday), and we will release more details after that.
“We want to bring the news directly to them first.”
Union representatives from Forsa, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) will release a statement on Friday.
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe welcomed the proposed public pay agreement.
Mr Donohoe said: “Collective agreements have an important place in public service industrial relations.
“They provide a means to ensure we can deal with public pay issues in a fair, equitable and affordable way. I welcome the proposed agreement that was reached in the early hours of this morning at the WRC.
“I recognise that the commitment, flexibility and agility of our highly skilled public servants is fundamental to the delivery of quality public services. I believe that this agreement will provide certainty and stability for public servants as well as the Government and public service users over the coming years.”
Mr Donohoe continued: “I have always been clear that I wanted to reach an agreement that was both affordable and fair and I believe both of these objectives have been achieved.
“The agreement provides for increases of 10.25 per cent over a two-and-a-half-year period. This is made up of pay increases totalling 9.25 per cent, as well as a provision for a Local Bargaining mechanism equivalent to 1 per cent of pay.
“The pay measures in the agreement are weighted towards those on lower incomes. Those on lowest incomes will receive up to 17.3 per cent over the lifetime of this agreement inclusive of the Local Bargaining provision.
“I believe the new Local Bargaining process in this proposed agreement is an innovative and positive development that will support ongoing industrial peace.
“This process will allow grades, groups and categories of public servants to progress proposals or address issues while also providing cost certainty to the Government.”
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Mr Donohoe will bring a memo to Cabinet next week.
He added: “If the unions decide to ballot their members on the proposed deal, Government will honour it. It roughly works out as 4 per cent this year, and 4 per cent next year for public servants.
“I think it’s appropriate. The cost of living has gone up by quite a lot and we want our nurses, our teachers, our doctors, our gardaí, our Defence Forces personnel, our local authority workers to be paid better.
“In return, there are agreements around performance and deficiencies, which I think are very important.
“What I think is good about the deal is that there is particular measures for low paid workers in the public service – pay increase around 16 or 17 per cent over two and a half years and that’s important too, because these are hardworking people who are being hit hardest by inflation and this I think will help them.”
