The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is recommending that unions representing workers in the private sector should seek pay increases of between 4% and 7%, where affordable, for 2025.
ICTU has produced a pay guide for unions following unanimous agreement among its private sector committee.
As well as trying to secure pay increases, unions are being advised to seek other improvements for workers, having regard to the profitability and the competitive position of the business concerned.
These include improving new entrant rates of pay; securing and protecting weekly working hours; and utilising where appropriate measures such as the Small Benefits Exemption Scheme.
Unions are also being urged to secure additional benefits such as shorter working time, additional annual leave, increased sick pay and paid family leave, and improved pension benefits.
"We have just come out of a General Election where the second most important issue for voters was the cost of living," said Owen Reidy, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
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"Workers' wages haven’t recovered their loss purchasing power from the years of heightened inflation. The average worker in the private sector is worse off today than three years ago, despite slower price inflation," Mr Reidy said.
"We believe it is essential at a time when the economy is booming and when the numbers at work has never been as high that workers seek to achieve decent pay increases through collective bargaining," he added
ICTU has once again accused the Government of not fully transposing an EU directive on workers' rights by failing to pass new legislation.
The EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages seeks to reduce working poverty and inequality by improving statutory minimum wages, as well as promoting collective bargaining.
The Department of Enterprise said it had received legal advice that Ireland's current minimum wage setting framework is largely already in compliance with the provisions of the directive, and that no new legislation is required on the collective bargaining side.
