Rank-and-file gardaí have joined with sergeants and inspectors in withdrawing from talks on a new Croke Park agreement.

Aer Lingus and Dublin Airport Authority staff have voted in favour of strike action if their employers make changes to their pension scheme without their agreement.

Public service management want to cut the cost of sick leave by 5% or €25m by the end of the year.

Public sector workers were tonight considering a new pay and reform deal brokered after two weeks of intense talks between unions and management.

Trade union Impact has said it would decide whether to recommend the public sector pay deal on April 8, it has emerged.

AT last sanity prevails, or is about to get its chance. Tremendous political perception was not required to identify the point in the cycle that talks between unions and Government might reopen, but that does not diminish the relief the announcement brought.

A second one-day strike by 250,000 public sector workers was called off tonight as Government and unions edged closer to agreeing €1.3bn pay cuts.

UNIONS and bodies representing emergency service personnel have demanded an urgent meeting with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ public service committee after a letter leaked from the committee’s chairman appeared to indicate his union was willing to accept cuts in public service jobs in order to protect pay.

THE Government will attempt to avert the threat of escalating industrial unrest by inviting the social partners back for talks on a national response to the economic crisis.

HUNDREDS of staff at Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann look set to become the latest casualties of the recession as both companies prepare for sweeping cutbacks.

THE Government’s decision to tap into part of the €18.7 billion National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) to shore up the banking industry has received a guarded welcome.

EIGHT of the country’s largest trade unions have voted overwhelmingly in favour of accepting the new national wage agreement.

TWO leading figures in the trade union movement yesterday gave their backing to a yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty.

PROLONGED negotiations between employers and trade unions continued last night in Government buildings, in a last-ditch effort to strike a new partnership deal.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will focus heavily on employment standards when he outline’s the Government’s priorities for a new social partnership deal, at the start of formal talks this afternoon.

THE Government will pay out the first €350 million of the benchmarking award to public servants over the next six weeks, a year after the pay rises were recommended.

HOPES that a new national pay deal could be salvaged hung in the balance last night as last-ditch talks continued between unions and employers.

The Government has confirmed that the pay increases recommended in the benchmarking report will also be passed on to public sector pensioners.

The Cabinet is due to discuss the benchmarking report on pay for public servants at its weekly meeting this morning.