Private sector unions are to seek flat rate pay increases of at least €30 per week for more than a million workers earning below average industrial earnings of €38,000.
Following the collapse of national pay talks last weekend, private sector unions say they must immediately lodge pay claims in order to protect their workers from inflation and rising costs.
Speaking after a meeting of the unions this afternoon, Unite national secretary Jerry Shanahan said that figures from Revenue show that 1.4 million workers earn less than €38,000 a year.
For workers on above average earnings, unions will be seeking at least 5% to match inflation - but may seek more in profitable businesses.
SIPTU president Jack O'Connor stressed that unions were not engaged in a phoney war - and that as far as the unions were concerned, social partnership on pay was at an end. But he said SIPTU would deal reasonably with companies that engaged constructively with their claims.
But ISME chief executive Mark Fielding told RTÉ radio that the increases being sought by unions were 'crazy' in the current climate.
