Talks between health service employers and unions representing hospital consultants on new contractual arrangements have been adjourned for two weeks.
The focus of discussions between the sides at a meeting yesterday was how any deal on new work practices should be priced.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association and the Irish Medical Organisation want the amounts paid to doctors for adopting new terms and conditions agreed at the negotiating table, but employers say if no agreement can be reached on pay during the talks, the matter should be referred to the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service.
The unions are objecting to any involvement by this body.
Finbar Fitzpatrick, secretary general of the IHCA, said the pricing mechanism for any new contract had to be agreed in advance of other matters.
While the employers' side had given the unions a presentation on the key elements of what they wanted from a new contract, there was no discussion of those yet.
The key changes proposed are that consultants work exclusively in the public sector and work a 39-hour week, rather than 33 hours at present, for a fixed salary. They will also be required to work on a rostered basis around the clock as part of multidisciplinary teams.
At present consultants earn an average of €160,000 a year for 33 hours work and some of this time can be spent treating private patients, for which they get paid extra.
Mr Fitzpatrick said it was disappointing, given that employers had been talking about negotiating a new contract with consultants for years, that they still had not been able to put a draft contract before the unions.
He said consultants had no difficulty with the proposal that they work 39 hours a week as many were doing this already.
Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations with the IMO, said progress could be made on all issues once agreement was reached on how any new deal was priced.
Gerard Barry, the chief negotiator on the employers' side, said talks would resume on February 9th assuming a resolution had been found in the meantime to the pricing issue. The chairman of the talks, Mark Connaughton SC, will be in touch with both sides in the interim.