Government to pay out €350m of benchmarking award within weeks

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.

An estimated 250,000 workers due to benefit will receive the first quarter of the award, backdated to December 2001. The increases, ranging up to 25%, are the result of the work of the public service benchmarking body, which published its report last June.

The exercise to bring public servants’ incomes in line with private sector counterparts was a crucial element of social partnership. The terms were accepted by unions along with the Sustaining Progress deal in March.