The employers' organisation, IBEC, yesterday welcomed what it described as the Government's tough line on benchmarking.
In a statement, IBEC said the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, announced yesterday at the plenary session of Sustaining Progress that if commitments to public service modernisation and change and to industrial peace under Sustaining Progress were not delivered, then benchmarking would not be paid.
It also welcomed the decision that the work of the Performance Verification Groups, established under Sustaining Progress, will now be subject to the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.
IBEC said it believed this would bring greater transparency to the process of determining and measuring progress of modernisation and change in the public service.
The groups consisting of employers, trade unions and independent members would decide if the level of progress on modernisation and change warranted payment of the general round increases under Sustaining Progress and the 75 per cent balance of benchmarking due to the public service.
IBEC Director, Mr Brendan McGinty, said one of the most significant issues arose out of the discussions of the public finances and where the Government now found itself. "It is fair to say that the fiscal outlook is much lower than forecast at Budget time and is not very attractive. The need to encourage competitiveness is fundamental and this was stressed at the meeting," he said.
Public service excellence and efficiency needed to be tackled as ruthlessly as any private business in the face of global competition. Any private-sector company which found itself in the position of the present Government would present the facts to its employees and renegotiate benchmarking.
Although difficult, employees would have limited options in such circumstances and harsh realities would have to be addressed, he said.
"IBEC has urged Government to revisit the benchmarking process, which was influenced by conditions at the peak of the economic cycle and to review how, when and under what circumstances it could be paid," Mr McGinty said. Given the spiralling cost of the public sector pay and pensions bill, Government should increase its target of reducing public-sector employment through non-replacement and voluntary retirements from 5,000 to 10,000.