Employers' group IBEC says that while some of its member companies are still reducing wages, most companies are freezing pay this year.
IBEC claimed pay levels in Ireland were up to 20% higher than our main trading partners. It is recommending that companies 'should not entertain' any claims for pay rises this year.
IBEC's director of industrial relations Brendan McGinty told a conference in Dublin that almost half of the companies surveyed expected no change to their pay bill in 2011, with nearly seven out of ten freezing basic wage rates.
'For most companies, the necessity of a pay pause and, for about 10% of companies, pay reductions remains,' he said. 'IBEC expects that the high degree of realism in 2010 concerning pay developments will remain in 2011, he added.
Mr McGinty said there had been few pay claims so far this year.
IBEC has also confirmed that a 2010 private sector protocol agreed with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions for the orderly conduct of industrial relations has been extended into 2011.
The protocol gives guidance to the State's industrial relations machinery on how to manage claims in unionised workplaces, in the absence of a national pay agreement.
After a review of the protocol with ICTU, IBEC also announced that the groups would establish a tripartite structure with Government to deal with any difficulties that arise.
