The social partners are to resume talks on a successor to Partnership 2000 today after SIPTU's national executive agreed unanimously to re-enter negotiations.
The executive of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) had already decided to resume negotiations, but the endorsement of the State's largest union was required to make them meaningful.
One of the elements which clinched the agreement of the unions to renewed talks was a proposal from SIPTU and the Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) representatives on ICTU's taxation sub-committee that there should be a tax credit worth £5 a week to all workers earning less than £15,000 a year.
This would effectively increase their take-home pay after next April by between 5 and 7.1 per cent a week, compared with around 2.2 per cent under the original proposals from the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
Announcing the decision of the SIPTU executive, the union's general secretary, Mr John McDonnell, said that the union was "satisfied that the position of the lower paid and those on low incomes is firmly back at the top of the agenda". He said that the union "welcomes the assurances of the Taoiseach on this issue and is satisfied that the damage inflicted by the Budget on low-income families is being addressed now and in future Budget strategy".
There was also "a clear acceptance by Government and employers that low incomes can best be dealt with by a combination of tax, welfare and flat-rate increases. These will now be addressed in the national pay talks".
He thanked the ICTU strategy group for its work in this area and for identifying measures for helping those earning less than the average industrial wage.
The general secretary of the CPSU, Mr Blair Horan, also welcomed the measures being proposed. Mr Horan welcomed the introduction of tax credits to help the low-paid, adding that these were more cost-effective to the Exchequer than simply increasing personal allowances. About 30 per cent of CPSU members are on low pay.
Meanwhile, Mandate, which represents over 35,000 low-paid workers in the private sector, yesterday called for the national minimum wage to be introduced at £5 an hour rather than the proposed £4.40.
The union's national industrial official, Mr John Douglas, said that specific commitments would be required from the Government on this issue in any new agreement.
"While the Government has indicated that it is willing to address the taxation of people on low pay, we will be insisting in the talks that all workers earning the national minimum wage be taken out of the tax net by the next Budget," he added.
The voluntary and community pillar has also welcomed the talks. Its spokesman, Mr Mike Allen, said yesterday that the real work was only just beginning. He said that the pillar had condemned the Budget "from the outset, as a breach of the national agreements on social inclusion, equality, childcare, taxation and low pay set out in the National Economic and Social Council report".
Each organisation would work for meaningful changes on behalf of its own constituency, he said.