The executive committee of the State's largest public sector trade union has recommended that its members accept the new national partnership agreement, Towards 2016.
After a meeting in Dublin yesterday, the Impact executive said it was confident that the pay terms would outpace inflation and that no other process could achieve better improvements in living and employment standards. A ballot of the union's 55,000 members will conclude on August 11th.
The union's general secretary, Peter McLoone, described as "nonsense" the suggestion that the deal could, if rejected, be improved through further negotiations.
"This argument is coming from people who were against a partnership deal even before negotiations began. In seven months of talks employers resisted every extra cent on pay and every plank of the employment rights package. So it's nonsense to suggest that Government and employers will give more now," he said. Towards 2016 was "among the best deals ever negotiated for workers in this country", he added.
Mr McLoone, who is also Irish Congress of Trade Unions president, warned that the employment rights package would fall if the deal was rejected.
"Pay always grabs the headlines . . . but in the long term the package of workplace protections has far more significance for all workers because it will prevent wages and working conditions being driven down as decent companies try to compete with rogue employers," he said.
The executive of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, one of the country's largest private sector unions, which has in the past campaigned against national agreements, decided by majority vote in favour of the deal.
A postal ballot of the union's members will now take place.