PRIVATE SECTOR trade unions will today consider proposals to seek basic increases of about 5 per cent for most workers, flat-rate rises of at least €30 per week for the lower paid as well as provision to look for higher amounts in profitable companies as part of local bargaining with employers.
The private sector committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) will consider guidelines for unions pursuing pay claims with individual employers in the aftermath of the failure of talks on a national pay deal last week.
The committee will seek to put together a co-ordinated approach for cases where more than one union represents similar grades of staff in companies.
In addition to pay, the unions will also consider proposals to look for improvements in conditions, including a shorter working week and longer holidays, in local negotiations with employers.
The chairman of the Ictu private sector committee, Jerry Shanahan, said the first pay claims could be lodged with companies by the end of this week.
He said the main areas where pay claims were likely to be made were sectors such as financial services; food, drink and tobacco; manufacturing including chemical and pharmaceuticals; and some parts of retailing where current pay deals had expired.
He said that under proposed guidelines which he would be putting forward, unions would seek minimum increases to match inflation of about five per cent.
For low-paid workers there should be flat-rate monetary rises that should be about 25 per cent higher than the percentage increases. He said that if most workers received a 5 per cent increase, the flat-rate rise for the lower paid should be the equivalent of about 6 per cent. The flat-rate increase should not be lower than the €30 per week rise to be sought by the Mandate union for its members in the retail sector.
Mr Shanahan said the expiry of the national deal also created room for local bargaining in which unions could seek increases higher than the rate of inflation in companies with the capacity to pay.
The committee would also consider how key union demands for collective bargaining rights and pensions could be pursued outside of the social partnership process.
Mr Shanahan said that if employers sought to frustrate the process of pursuing claims, unions "would have to move to ballot members on pursuing these by other means".
The employers' group Ibec has effectively urged its member companies to acknowledge pay claims lodged by unions but to take no action on them in advance of new talks on a national deal expected to be convened by the Taoiseach at the end of the month.
Ibec has not ruled out a deal being reached at the 11th hour but has said that if this does not happen, pay claims would be processed in line with established industrial relations procedures.
It also warned yesterday that many employers would require pay moderation or pay pauses.
Separately yesterday the finance union, the Irish Bank Officials Association, said it would be seeking increases of 10 per cent over two years. "In formulating the precise claim in each bank, we will, of course, factor in the particular circumstances of each business and the change agenda being sought by senior management. However, inflation-proofing our members' terms and conditions will underpin each claim," it said.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union said it would begin serving claims on employers in the manufacturing, construction, electrical contracting and power industries as they fell due this month.
Siptu will today begin making pay claims on behalf of members in about a dozen companies. It is understood that the companies concerned include the CRH group, Britvic Ireland, Tesco, Glanbia and Cemex. Sources said the union had not put a figure on the claims and that the contacts today would represent the beginning of a process.