The employers' body IBEC has decided to formally withdraw from the terms of the national pay agreement before the new year, unless it reaches agreement with ICTU on an alternative pay agreement by mid-December. The decision was taken after a meeting of IBEC's national council today.
A transitional agreement reached in September last year provided for wage increases totalling 6% over 21 months.
But IBEC director general Danny McCoy said the terms of that deal were agreed in a radically different economic context and were now utterly inappropriate. IBEC has repeatedly stated that there should be no pay rises before 2011.
Mr McCoy added that the focus should be on keeping people in jobs, but that protracted efforts over the last year to reach an agreement on suspending the pay terms had proved unsuccessful.
He said IBEC had proposed a set of measures that would re-direct public funds towards keeping people in jobs, rather than allowing a drift into spending equivalent funds on social welfare payments.
