A leading craft union is to recommend rejection of a 17 per cent "benchmarking" pay increase for more than 4,000 workers in local authorities and health boards.
The Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) says the pay increase falls well short of the rise recommended by consultants who compared the pay rates of craft workers in the public and private sectors.
Most other unions, however, are in favour of the deal, which will give 4,250 workers a pay increase of €87.59 a week.
This is in addition to the 7 per cent rise the workers are due in phases next year under the Sustaining Progress agreement.
The craft workers were excluded from the Benchmarking Body's deliberations for historical reasons.
Since the 1970s, local authority and health board craft workers have effectively had their own benchmarking process. Pay rates have been set every three or four years by reference to rates in the private sector.
Unions agreed to conduct the most recent review as a separate, but parallel process to the main benchmarking study, with the same payment dates to apply.
As agreement could not be reached, the matter ended up with the Labour Court, which recommended a 17 per cent increase for the workers concerned.
This is nearly twice the average increase of 9 per cent awarded to other public service workers by the Benchmarking Body.
A second Labour Court recommendation, setting out the increased flexibility the craft workers should concede in return for the pay increase, has recently been issued.
The 10 unions involved will begin balloting workers next week, with the majority likely to recommend acceptance of the increase.
However, Mr Finbarr Dorgan of the TEEU, said the union was "totally opposed" to the deal and would advise members to reject it.
He said that as part of the parallel benchmarking process for craft workers, a British consultancy firm, IMBUCON, had concluded that pay rates in the public sector had fallen between 22 and 26 per cent behind those in the private sector.
The Labour Court, however, had "come down on the side of management" and recommended a lower increase of 17 per cent. It is understood the TEEU represents between 400 and 500 of the 4,250 workers to be balloted between next week and November 6th.
All the unions will be bound by the aggregate result, but Mr Dorgan said he was hopeful the deal would be rejected.
However, Mr Paddy Coughlan of SIPTU, the chairman of the group of unions involved, said a majority were recommending acceptance of the deal.
The increase was "a considerable achievement in the face of opposition to public service pay increases from business and from right-wing politicians", he said.
"At the same time the increase is based on a comparison with 19 leading private sector companies, so nobody can challenge its validity if they want us to recruit from the top echelon of craft workers for our health services and local authorities."
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said yesterday that local authorities would have to meet the cost of the pay increase, as well as the benchmarking rises generally, from their own resources.
There was no question of them being able to recoup the monies from the Exchequer.
The Local Government Management Services Board estimates that the benchmarking increases cost local authorities €59.46 million this year, and will cost a further €85.5 million in 2004.
