More than 5,000 mostly female civil servants are to receive about €6,000 each from the State in €34 million settlement of a 1991 equal pay claim.
The deal was struck between the Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) and the Department of Finance. It is the biggest equal pay claim conceded in the history of the State.
The claim arose from the fact that up to the late 1990s paper-keepers, who were predominantly male, were paid about £50 a week more than female clerical assistants for doing similar work. The two grades were amalgamated into the clerical officer grade in 1997.
The settlement, approved today by delegates at the CPSU annual conference in Tralee, Co Kerry, brings to an end a protracted campaign which the union began twelve years ago.
The claim was - originally in respect of 26 workers - was rejected by the Labour Relations Commission and subsequently by the Labour Court but the CPSU appealed to the High Court, forcing the Labour Court to adjudicate again. It ruled in the union's favour in December 2001
An appeal by the Department of Finance to the High Court failed and the two sides reached the out of court settlement in talks late yesterday evening.