Under-performing public servants should be “managed out” of their jobs but good workers who deliver should be rewarded, a top civil servant has said.

Sick days across the public sector cost the State over €380m last year, according to figures released by the Department of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.

The largest public sector trade union in the country says it has no problem with the civil service embracing technology to improve its services - provided it does not lead to job losses.

Public sector workers could demand a pay increase of 6% if the Government does not reduce their working hours.

The fees charged by a number of public service bodies are set to be hiked to make up for a pensions funding hole.

Nursing unions are claiming that agencies are paying nurses and midwives 20% above the public sector rate for the same work.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation say pay remains the "number one issue" ahead of their union conference later this month.

Cabinet will today sign off on public sector pay increases due to come into force from next month.

In the coming weeks, many of us will meet relatives or friends we might not have seen for a year.

A planned new 80,000 member union is set to become the largest representative of staff in the public sector.

Workers who vote to reject the widely accepted new public sector pay deal may be frozen out of pay increases and other benefits and face financial penalties, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has warned.

Services are shortchanged to retrofit post-crash public servants with boom-time expectations, writes Gerard Howlin

It is hard to think that anyone would oppose the simple, equal-pay-for-equal-work principle. It is a watertight expression of the values around fairness that inform our world. 

Public sector pay talks broke up around 11pm last night and will resume at 2.30pm today as last-minute efforts to strike a deal intensified and entered a make or break phase.

After two weeks of negotiation with little progress, talks between the Government and trade unions on a new public sector pay deal will intensify hugely over the next 48 hours.

A new pay deal is likely to be spread over three years because fiscal constraints means it will take longer to restore the cuts imposed on public sector workers under the Government’s emergency financial measures.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin has joined union representatives in demanding the acceleration of pay recovery as part of upcoming public sector negotiations.

Public sector workers are set to face three rates of pension contributions, with gardaí being hit with the biggest levy.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has delivered a fresh blow to public sector pay demands, saying lower-than-expected tax revenues will impact on what the State can afford.

Public sector workers could be in line for a 6% pay rise over 3 years.

Nursing unions will meet with HSE management this afternoon to discuss the ongoing dispute over staffing levels

The threat of a bus strike should Bus Éireann impose pay cuts is as inevitable as the need for Bus Éireann to take radical action to restore solvency.

A tight result is expected later today in the ballot of secondary teachers over whether to continue or end a number of industrial disputes.

The number of staff at the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) and National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) who were paid over €100,000 last year rose to 240 from some 223 in 2015.

Any attempts to restore public workers’ pay to pre-recession levels risks dragging the country “back to the bad old days”, a junior minister has warned.

Public-sector workers are being told the value of their pensions will have to be considered in pay talks.

Public service trade unions have given unequivocal support to Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) chairman Kevin Duffy after his position was called into question by Garda representative bodies.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has insisted Kevin Duffy remains the right man to head up the commission tasked with advising the Government on pay in the public sector.

The work of the Public Service Pay Commission will not be brought forward, despite growing calls for a new public sector deal early in the new year.

The country cannot afford to “jettison” the Lansdowne Road Agreement by accelerating pay restoration of public sector workers, according to Fianna Fáil.

Workers in the public service shouldn’t overestimate what the State can afford, or underestimate how much those in the private sector have suffered, writes Kyran Fitzgerald.

Our public sector unions, despite their repeated claims that their members are more educationally qualified than their private sector comparators, still haven’t grasped that they do not generate the wealth that this country needs to sustain its economy, writes Paul Mills.

The pressure to meet mounting public sector pay demands stepped up a gear yesterday as junior doctors confirmed they will ballot for strike action.

Juno McEnroe meets unions, employers groups, and politicians who give their take on the wave of pay disputes

We’ve heard many times over the last few weeks that we must not do anything that will result in a return to the ways of the bad old days that preceded the crash in 2009.

The Finance Minister Michael Noonan has warned that extending the pay deal given to gardaí across the public service is simply not affordable.

Two teachers' unions have held a rally outside Leinster House, calling for pay equality for their members.

Rolling over for the public sector unions will do nothing for the economy, except hurt it. As part of the agreement reached at the peak of the economic downturn, the Government is now restoring pay that was cut from the wage packets of public sector employees.

The country’s largest public sector union has warned that the newly-announced Public Service Pay Commission (PSPC) will quickly become “debased” in the eyes of the State’s employees if it is staffed by “the usual suspects”.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe is planning talks with teachers unions who have signed up to the Lansdowne Road Agreement.

The Irish Exporters’ Association has called for restraint in public sector pay rises and accused the Government of lacking the courage to tackle the issue in the proper manner.

Britain’s public finances recorded their first July surplus in three years, driven by the strongest tax receipts for the month since records began in 1997.

A halving of sick pay for public sector workers last year resulted in an extra 260,000 days being worked and a saving of over €50m for the taxpayer.

A campaign has been launched to encourage healthier work practices in the public sector.