Unions meet to discuss pay

PUBLIC sector union chiefs meet in Dublin today for the start of two days of talks to decide whether they will demand the abandonment of the benchmarking process in the wake of last month’s pay review which gave nothing to most public sector employees.

Less than 11,000 of the country’s 300,000 public sector workers received increases from the benchmarking body.

A preliminary meeting of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ Public Services Committee immediately after last month’s announcement confirmed “the disappointment and dismay” of all the public sector unions, according to committee chairman and IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone.