Pay proposals - Sector faces threat of upheaval

With private sector unions and farmers unimpressed with the contents of the proposed pay agreement, the result of any vote on a successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness on March 26 would be a very difficult one to call.

The delegate meeting of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on that date could well be swayed, if only narrowly, by unions representing public sector workers, because of the implications of benchmarking.

Public sector workers would look forward to increases ranging from anything from 3% to 25%, as well as the annualised increase of 4.8% which is on offer to other workers. That equates with a pay rise of 7% over the suggested period of 18 months, which may win the approval of employers but hardly their private sector employees.

The farmers have set their face against what is on the table at the moment, dismissing the current proposals as containing absolutely nothing to win them over.

There are, of course, a plethora of other issues inherent to any possible agreement, but the financial implications will be the key.

Failure to realise a majority outcome in its favour next month at the ICTU meeting would raise the spectre of a free-for-all in the private sector.