Employers and union leaders will meet separately tomorrow to consider their reactions to the proposed national partnership deal. The initial union reaction, however, has been mixed, with some sources maintaing that union support is "in the balance".
At a meeting of its executive council, which ended shortly after 10.30 p.m. last night, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions deferred a decision until tomorrow on whether to recommend the deal.
The deal, which emerged early yesterday following the intervention of the Taoiseach and senior Cabinet colleagues, proposes a 7 per cent pay increase, phased over 18 months. In addition, public servants would receive full payment of the increases recommended by the benchmarking body, averaging 8.9 per cent, by June 2005.
The pay terms are considerably below increases of up to 10 per cent over 12 months demanded by a number of private sector unions.
Union leaders said support for the deal would depend on the precise terms of the compromise reached on two non-pay issues.
These are the demands for a strengthening of workers' rights to be represented by unions, and the employers' insistence on measures to ensure full compliance with the terms of a new agreement.
IBEC, the employers' body, will begin preparing its response to the proposed deal when its negotiating team meets tomorrow.
The proposals will then come before its executive council tomorrow week, after which it will hold consultations with sectoral and regional representatives. A meeting of its general council, likely early next month, will adopt a final position.
Mr Brendan McGinty, the organisation's director of industrial relations, said some elements of the Government's proposals, such as the pay element, were "less attractive" than others.
However, the fact that the proposals had been put forward by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, meant they would be taken "extremely seriously".
Several union leaders said they would wait to see the final deal on union recognition and compliance, however, before arriving at a position.
Representatives of the farming and community and voluntary sectors have been invited to attend partnership talks on Thursday.
