A renewed push to secure a national partnership deal is expected in the new year.
Informal contacts between union and employer representatives have been made since talks broke down early on Wednesday.
A formula considered capable of breaking the deadlock has yet to emerge, however, and both sides remain pessimistic about the prospect of an agreement.
Negotiators accept that an intervention by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, would not be of help at this stage, given the extent of the gap between the two sides.
While new talks are not certain, both sides as well as the Government are keen to agree a successor to the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, making a final attempt to do a deal next month likely.
Unions and employers were both pressing ahead yesterday with plans for free collective pay bargaining for the first time since the late 1980s.
IBEC, the employers' body, is drawing up guidelines for its members on how to deal with local bargaining.
A source said these were at "an advanced stage".
The private sector committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is to meet on January 6th to prepare co-ordinated claims in companies where more than one union operates.
Mr Eamon Devoy, the vice-chairman of the committee, said employers appeared to believe that "local bargaining" involved telling unions what they were prepared to pay.
However, he said, free collective bargaining meant unions could serve "any claim they damn well like".
"That's not what employers have in mind, but it's what they're going to get. They had better get into the right frame of mind," he said.
Mr Devoy's own union, the TEEU, is to hold an executive meeting on January 9th to decide its strategy on pay claims.
If inflation, as expected, reached 6 per cent next year, that was the minimum pay rise that would be required to maintain members' living standards, he said.
Workers accepted, however, that some companies' ability to pay differed from others and claims would be tailored accordingly.
The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME), meanwhile, said it was "not averse" to a return to local bargaining, but pay rises of 5 per cent "should not be countenanced under any circumstances".
The association, which is not party to the social partnership process, also said the pay rises for public servants proposed under benchmarking "should be consigned to the dustbin of history".
It is understood, however, that the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, intends to pay the benchmarking increases, regardless of whether there is a partnership deal or not.
Before he releases the €565 million allocated for benchmarking in the Budget, however, a deal on basic pay rises in the public service will have to be agreed.
