Negotiators at talks aimed at resolving the dispute about public service pay cuts are in for 'a rough few weeks,' according to the General Secretary of the Public Service Executive Union.
Tom Geraghty was speaking as he arrived for the first negotiations with Department of Finance officials and facilitator Kieran Mulvey.
For almost two months, State employees in the civil service, health, education and local authority sectors have been engaged in a work-to-rule including a refusal to answer phones and intermittent closures of public offices.
The industrial action was due to escalate to include work stoppages from today.
However, following a meeting on Thursday night between the Taoiseach and union leaders, it was decided that the two sides would engage in intensive talks chaired by Labour Relations Commission Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey and Director of Conciliation Kevin Foley.
It is understood that this week's talks will primarily take place at sectoral level.
The facilitators will attempt to establish whether the public service transformation agenda that was on the table before talks collapsed in December remains viable.
However, it is understood that the thorniest issues of any potential deal - pay, outsourcing and redeployment - are unlikely to be addressed until later in the talks process.
LRC request for non-escalation
Tom Geraghty said the negotiations would be very difficult and complex, he said there were an awful lot of elements, any one of which could collapse the process.
He said the Labour Relations Commission had requested that they not escalate industrial action while discussions were ongoing, adding that the union had given a commitment to that effect.
Blair Horan, General Secretary of the Civil and Public Service Union, denied that his union's overtime ban beginning today constituted an escalation of industrial action.
He said it was part of what they had been doing for the last while and there was nothing new in that. They had made some changes but he did not view it as an escalation.
Mr Horan said he would be optimistic of a deal if the lower paid were looked after, adding that they would have to wait to see if that happens.
Labour Relations Chief Executive Kieran Mulvey was asked whether he had requested the parties not to escalate the dispute at a preliminary meeting last Friday. He said that Friday's discussions were confidential to the parties.
He said he was here to facilitate and hopefully come to a successful conclusion.
Asked whether today's commencement of the overtime ban by the lower paid civil servants was helpful, he said he would prefer not to comment on that, adding that they would go ahead with talks anyway irrespective of what was happening.
SIPTU's Patricia King said she did not know who had told reporters that there had been a request from the LRC not to escalate the dispute.
Asked about SIPTU's two-day strike scheduled to hit seven hospitals on 7 April, she said the LRC had been appraised that strike notice was expiring on 7 April, and that no request had been made one way or the other.
Jerry Shanahan of Unite said that while there was the potential to reach agreement, it would depend on the response of the other side. He said the breakdown of talks before Christmas had been a tremendous setback for the trust existing between the parties.
Mr Shanahan said his union had a single agenda to restore the incomes of their members, and whatever the outcome, the members would have the final say.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he is hopeful the talks will be successful. He said he hopes a consensus or agreement can be worked out that takes into account the current economic reality.
Mr Cowen was speaking from California where he is leading a trade mission.
Elsewhere, members of SIPTU will protest outside Mount Carmel Hospital for a second day today over pay cuts.
The union says cuts of 4-6% were imposed on staff at the hospital without any consultation.
Meanwhile, strike notice has been served on the hospital for next Monday, 22 March, on behalf of a number of unions.
The action will involve workers including radiographers, laboratory scientists, nursing and clerical staff.
