Employers want a three-year agreement with "cost-absorption measures" to maintain competitiveness. Unions want a 33-month agreement with no conditions on national pay rounds worth at least 15 per cent.
National Minimum Wage: Employers want it kept at £4.40 an hour with adjustments a reserved power of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Unions want a rate of £5 an hour with an automatic escalator clause.
Employers willing to offer flat-rate increases of up to £9 a week in each year of the agreement for the low-paid. Unions want £15 a week.
Employers want cuts in employees' PRSI to help fund increases to the low-paid. Unions prefer tax credits.
Employers want any profit-sharing clause of a new agreement to be voluntary. Unions want to make it difficult for firms to avoid such deals.