Employers and unions have agreed to park unresolved negotiations on maintaining employment standards to allow talks on a new national pay agreement to proceed.
Last February, unions entered negotiations on a new National Partnership Agreement on the basis that pay would not be discussed until union concerns about exploitation and displacement had been addressed.
After 14 weeks while some progress has been made the two sides remain deadlocked.
Tonight, the Executive Council of Congress agreed to allow negotiators to commence talks on pay increases next week.
However, all sides have stressed that no national agreement can be completed until the Employment Rights Agenda has been agreed.
Among the proposals for enforcing labour standards under discussion so far are a new Director of Employment rights compliance, enhanced mechanisms to assess whether redundancies are genuine and higher penalties for breaches of employment rights including six figure fines and imprisonment.
