Public service unions will resist any move to link their pensions to inflation rather than the pay rates in the grade from which they retire, according to a union spokesperson.
IMPACT Director of Communications Bernard Harbor was speaking after a meeting of the Public Service Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to discuss their strategy for pay talks due to get under way later this month.
He said the value of public service pensions - and employee contributions to them - will be the most contentious issue in those negotiations.
The pensions of State employees are generally viewed as more generous than those in the private sectors.
He said the first priority of unions in the talks would be to set out a timetable for the restoration of pay cuts imposed during the economic crisis.
However, he said they would also be emphasising the need to retain the value of guaranteed public service pensions.
He said he understood from comments by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe that this will be an issue in the talks.
Mr Harbor said they would see a move from pay parity to inflation-based increases as a reduction in the value of pension benefits, and they want to keep the pay link - known as pay parity - in place.
He said unions would resist any move to link pensions to inflation - and concluded by saying that the value of pension payments will be the most contentious issue in the upcoming talks.
When asked whether public servants would be prepared to negotiate on paying a higher contribution, he said that out of every euro earned above €28,750, public servants paid a contribution of around 20% in one form or another.
He said there was no case for an increased contribution, but said they were aware the Government side was going to seek that in the talks, and they would have to see what would happen.
The talks on a successor to the Lansdowne Road Agreement will commence after the Public Service Pay Commission delivers its report, which sources anticipate will happen early next week.
While the talks are expected to deliver pay increases for the State's 300,000 employees, many of those workers still view those rises as pay restoration, following the significant cuts imposed during the economic crisis.
However, while increases may be on the agenda, the Government is likely to seek further productivity measures, as well as ways of decreasing the State's liability for public service pensions.
Guaranteed defined benefit pensions for retirees currently cost the exchequer €3.3 billion per year, and deliver better incomes than most private sector retirement plans.
It is expected that the State may seek to retain part of the pension levy (Pension Related Deduction) imposed on workers as a contribution to their pensions during the recession as a permanent higher contribution for higher earners.
The threshold for such measures has not yet emerged.
Government negotiators may also seek to change the way pension increases for retirees are calculated.
At present, under a principle known as pay parity, if a serving government employee gets an increase, a pensioner who was in that grade gets a proportionate increase.
If increases were instead benchmarked against the Consumer Price Index, it could save the State billions over the years.
In 2013 the State introduced a less generous pension scheme for new entrants based on career-averaging, and with post retirement increases linked to inflation.
However, only 15% of public servants are currently in that scheme, and it will take years to deliver savings.
At the upcoming pay talks, unions are also likely to seek the abolition of 15 million unpaid additional hours imposed under the Haddington Road Agreement. However, Government sources are adamant that reforms introduced in recent years must be retained.
The talks will also examine the best mechanism for removing the financial emergency legislation known as FEMPI which permitted the cuts in pay and conditions imposed under austerity.
It is hoped the talks will be concluded by the end of May or early June to allow balloting on the proposals to take place as soon as possible.
If unions accept the proposals, it will allow the Government to complete its calculations ahead of October's budget.
