Mandate, the union representing bar staff, has said it has received no indication that its members would not get pay rises agreed under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
This announcement was made following reports yesterday that publicans would not honour wage deals unless the price of a pint is increased by 5p.
Mandate's general secretary, Mr Owen Nulty, said his members expected the first 5.5 per cent pay rise due under the PPF from November 1st, regardless of any dispute between the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA) and the Government over prices.
"We have not been advised by anybody, either the LVA or individual employers, that they are not paying. As far as we're concerned a deal is a deal and the 5.5 per cent must be honoured."
He expressed surprise that publicans might have problems about meeting the claim, because it was much smaller than the 26 per cent pay rise conceded last July in return for Mandate members co-operating with the longer bar opening hours.
Mandate's national officer, Mr Brendan Archbold, said that in the "unlikely event" of publicans "welching" on the pay deal, Mandate would initiate industrial action "to ensure that our members' interests are protected and that the agreement is honoured in full".
The LVA chief executive, Mr Frank Fell, said the LVA had been unaware of the price-freeze order when it negotiated the wage deal with Mandate. After meeting his members yesterday he said "the vast majority" of publicans would give the wage increase on November 1st.
Some would "be forced to plead inability to pay," and those publicans would have the LVA's backing in any Labour Relations Commission action.
Mandate represents about 3,000 bar staff in the greater Dublin area. It also has members in the provinces and had received no reports of inability to pay. Agreements in the provinces are at local level or with publicans.
The LVA represents public houses in the Dublin area. The 6,000 pubs outside the capital are represented by the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI). More than 90 per cent of these pubs are family-run and so are not involved in the Mandate pay agreements.
A spokesman for the VFI yesterday said it supported the LVA calls for an end to the price freeze. The VFI believes the freeze "does not offer a solution to increasing inflation" and is unfair to publicans, particularly those outside the Dublin area who charge less per pint than their Dublin counterparts.
The spokesman said the dispute over pay increases for bar staff was "a Dublin issue".