The Executive Council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is preparing to meet in Dublin this afternoon ahead of resuming talks with employers aimed at securing a new social partnership deal.
ICTU will meet employers' group IBEC this afternoon at 2 p.m. for further negotiations after talks broke up last night without substantial agreement.
However, it now looks possible that any deal agreed will run for 18-months. Progress was understood to be very slow, however, and a breakthrough on the key issue of pay was proving difficult to achieve.
Yesterday's talks, chaired by the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Dermot McCarthy, began at 4 p.m. following a round of informal contacts between all sides and continued late into the night.
Some minor progress was also understood to have been made on non-pay areas of importance to both sides, including union recognition, redundancy and how unions can be made comply with the terms of any new deal.
The director-general of IBEC, Mr Turlough O'Sullivan, said yesterday he was pessimistic and he accused the ICTU president, Mr Joe O'Toole, of heightening tension by carrying out negotiations over the air waves at the weekend.
Mr O'Toole has insisted agreement must be reached by tomorrow or there would be a return to free-for-all pay bargaining.
He told The Irish Times: "If anybody thinks it's just a matter of the talks breaking down and then everybody coming back together, they are mistaken. If it goes beyond Wednesday the situation will be irretrievable".