The Government told trade unions that their members can expect "substantial increases" in take-home pay in forthcoming Budgets even though it refused to make such a promise in the new national pay deal, senior union sources have claimed.
The sources said the Government rejected union demands to include specific additional promises on pay above the core terms of the second Sustaining Progress deal, which will give most workers a 5.5 per cent increase, in three phases, over the next 18 months if endorsed.
However, they said the Government agreed that unions could advise their members that they expect "substantial increases" if they backed the latest phase of the deal.
While such an assurance is not as firm as a written commitment, it is in line with the conventional political analysis, which suggests that the Government will respond to its poor performance in the June elections by increasing take-home pay in forthcoming Budgets.
With this in mind, it is understood that unions are already resolved to demand this autumn that the Government increases tax bands in line with inflation. The failure to do this in the last two Budgets was heavily criticised by union and Opposition interests.
The latest development emerged after members of the State's largest craft union voted by a four-to-one majority to support the new pay deal.
The vote in favour of the deal by the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) is the first time the union has supported a national wage agreement.
It came ahead of a crucial meeting this week which will determine whether the trade union movement in general backs the agreement.
With the counting of ballots in SITPU to begin today, the TEEU will now support ratification of the deal at a special delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to be held on Wednesday.
With some reservations, the SIPTU leadership has supported the deal.
While union sources said a SIPTU majority in favour of the deal would be sufficient to ensure that it was passed by the ICTU, they said a negative SIPTU would not necessarily mean the deal fell.
In a separate development, the executive of the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) moved to reject the deal because the monetary terms were "inadequate to compensate for inflation".
"The executive members strongly held that any further administrative burden through the adjustment of the action plan for teachers would detrimentally affect the condition of service for members and detract from the primacy of teaching.
"In accordance with the executive decision, the 13 union delegates will be voting against the proposals on Wednesday next," the TUI said.