Warnings over push to defer pay deal

THE social partnership deal will be broken if the Government defers the payment of benchmarking to 150,000 public servants, a union leader warned yesterday.

A radical proposal to defer the 1.2 billion benchmarking payments is expected to come before next Wednesday's Cabinet meeting.

The public sector wage bill is set to cost an estimated 12.9 billion this year. And if the Government honours its commitment to pay 50% of the benchmarking next year it will rise substantially again.