Public service pay policy is in danger of collapse if increases are to be based on industrial muscle and militancy, the AHCPS general secretary, Mr Sean O Riordain, has warned.
"The Government's moral authority on pay has begun to slip," he said, and described the Buckley report on remuneration for senior civil servants as "a bit of a disaster".
He said growing fears of inflation, a Budget which gave the biggest tax breaks to high-income earners, banking scandals and soaring house prices were already undermining Partnership 2000.
"There are even more stresses beginning to appear in the public sector. If we end up with a situation where certain groups are, in effect, given a second bite of the PCW cherry, then it is difficult to see the consensus lasting," he added, a clear reference to the Garda pay dispute.
"Some adjustments will have to be made to reflect the fact that the Government moved beyond the 3 per cent restructuring limit after initial agreements were concluded. But if this is translated into one rule for them and a different rule for the rest of us, then consensus will fall apart.
"One message should go out loud and clear from this conference. We certainly will, in those circumstances, also be looking for our share of additional money. It may well be that the Government's moral authority on pay has begun to slip in any event."
He said the Buckley review was a bit of a disaster O Riordain said that it and raised the question of how fair, or practical, the performance-related pay concept was for the public service.
"I believe that, in the long run, the only sane way of dealing with public service pay is through a system of independent arbitration, with the facility for pay reviews every four years. It must now be abundantly clear to anybody in Government or top management, who has the wit or wisdom to see it, that the alternative to independent binding arbitration in the public sector is to have pay determined on the basis of a power exchange."