More than 34,000 craftworkers and general operatives in the public sector are to receive pay increases of between £24 and £19 a week, backdated to October 1st.
The increases, worth around 8 per cent, are on top of the 15.75 per cent provided for in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness and will cost over £35 million a year.
Basic pay for craftworkers in the public sector is £336 a week. General operatives earn £268 a week.
Some minor aspects of the agreement, such as a new code of work practices, still have to be finalised, but one of the chief negotiators, the TEEU assistant general secretary, Mr Finbarr Dorgan, confirmed last night that the pay rates had been finalised.
He hoped the increases, including back money, would be paid before Christmas. They are to bring pay rates in the public sector in line with those in private industry.
Specific provision for pay increases to 4,000 craftworkers and 30,000 general operatives was included in the PPF agreement following the bitter dispute over craft analogues in 1997 and 1998.
The current analogue, or basket of pay rates in the private sector used to calculate public sector rates, is to be revised as part of the new arrangements.
The old analogue had become increasingly irrelevant as companies in the group dwindled. A new basket of 20 companies has now been agreed.