No specific pay increase has been discussed with employers at review talks on the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, the ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said yesterday.
Mr Cassells was commenting after the employers' body, IBEC, rejected reports from some trade union leaders that the employers were considering a 3 per cent offer to compensate for inflation.
Mr Cassells said: "So far there have been no discussions formally, or informally, on a specific pay increase. So far discussions have been about getting the Government and employers to accept there is a serious problem and, secondly, to get them to agree a process to address that problem.
"At the moment the unions are considering all of the different options by which workers can be compensated for the erosion of living standards. We are prepared to be flexible in relation to how that might be addressed. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is also determined this problem will be addressed in a way that does not worsen our inflationary problems."
Yesterday's Irish Times report headlined "IBEC denies report workers will get extra 3 per cent pay rise" was discussed at the monthly meeting of the IBEC council yesterday. Afterwards, the director-general, Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, said there was "no question whatever of any negotiations on pay".
Further pay increases were "inappropriate", Mr O'Sullivan said, "because they would add to the already high cost of the PPF, make employers uncompetitive and lead us back into the old pay-price spiral".