PARTNERSHIP TALKS:THE IRISH Congress of Trade Unions says it will not entertain the idea of a pay pause in the public sector as sought by employers.
It has also signalled that if talks on a new national pay deal did not succeed in the near future, employers would face an "open season" in terms of pay claims from private sector workers.
Speaking yesterday, Ictu general secretary David Begg said a case could not be made for pay restraint at a time when workers were coming under real financial pressure.
He said that only "a naive fool" would go down that road as no one else was doing it.
"Whole groups of people in Irish society have had their snouts so deep in the trough for so long and made so much out of it that you cannot sell a message like that to people at large any more.
"It is not possible, even if it was the right thing to do," he said.
Mr Begg said that employers' group Ibec had "a brass neck" in seeking a pay pause for public servants when it represented companies where senior executives were paid millions.
He said staff in the public service had already had to face a pay pause at the start of their current pay deal as well as a real cut in wages due to higher-than-anticipated inflation.
He also said delays in the current national pay talks were costing workers money.
He said the effect of another pay freeze would be to further erode consumer confidence, reduce domestic demand and prolong a recession.
Mr Begg said the Ibec article in The Irish Timesyesterday on pay had given some hostages to fortune when dealing with private-sector pay.
"The impression you get from it is that there is a most congenial atmosphere out there and that there will be no pressure in the private sector on pay. The fact is that the private sector pressure has not been released yet because we have been engaged in a centralised process of trying to secure a settlement.
"If this comes a cropper in the next few weeks, then it will be open season in the private sector. And to think there will not be significant pay adjustments in the private sector is optimistic on their part to say the least," he said.
Mr Begg said he would not advocate sacrifices by workers to keep the current social partnership model. He said social partnership was not working for the trade union movement and the test now was whether it could be made to work.
"At the moment, it is looking extremely dicey to say the least," he said.
Mr Begg added that trade unions had been unsuccessful in the last two national agreements in securing progress on flagship social policy issues such as pensions, care for children, the elderly and the disabled as well as affordable housing.
He said that since 2004, trade unions had been pushed on to the defensive by trying to combat exploitation and the undermining of pay and conditions.
"There comes a time when we can no longer be the totally reasonable organisation when everybody else is behaving to maximise their own specific interest," he said.
In a paper published yesterday, Ictu urged the Government to introduce 10 measures which it maintained would help offset or mitigate the worst impact of recent price and inflation rises.
These included: a reduction in VAT, a freeze on public transport fare increases and more powers for the National Consumer Agency to take action against excessive profit-taking by wholesalers and retailers, especially for food and fuel.