A possible delay by the Government on the minimum wage is "shameful and unacceptable", ICTU General Secretary Owen Reidy has said.
It comes after Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers confirmed that increases in the minimum wage may be brought in over a longer period because of the need to make them sustainable for businesses.
This could push back the delivery promised by the previous Government to reach the living wage, which would be 60% of the average wage by 2026.
The living wage is seen as the minimum rate required for a full-time worker to afford the goods and services that people have agreed are essential for enabling a life with dignity.
It is currently €14.75 per hour, compared to minimum wage which is €13.50 per hour.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Reidy said the possible delay is "essentially giving a dose of austerity to low paid workers and targeting them".
"And we all know that the competitiveness problem in Ireland is to do with infrastructure," he said.
"It's to do with energy. It's to do with housing, water, transport, things the government are responsible for, not low paid workers."
He added that the ICTU has "made it clear to the Government if we're going to deal with competitiveness, it cannot be a reductionist issue where it's just focusing on labour costs".
He said a delay of any kind is not acceptable and that the Government "need to be very careful about the approach they're taking".
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"On the one hand, the State says we are a high-skilled, highly agile, highly educated workforce, so therefore that should mean we should have good wages in terms of conditions of employment," he said.
"But on the other hand, they're looking at subsidising the hospitality sector to the tune of €650 million by way of a VAT reduction.
"And let's remember, many of those hospitality workers are the very same workers who are going to be hit by this type of austerity."
In relation to tariffs, Mr Reidy said that ICTU would ask the Government to look at the sectors that are going to be directly affected by tariffs, potentially pharmaceuticals and food and drink export sectors, not hospitality and retail.
"We've made it very clear that there should be a proper scheme that if any of those workers go in short time working or if any of them are laid off, that there should be a maintenance of their relationship with their employer.
"And we think those businesses should get supports, but there needs to be a level of coherence.
"If this is the road the Government are going down, I actually think there will be an increase in industrial risk because people will see the social contract that was promised to them as we come out of Covid, it's going to be broken."
'Flying in the face of what needs to be done'
Sinn Féin's Public Expenditure Spokesperson, Rose Conway-Walsh has said that the Government is "flying in the face of what needs to be done," in signalling a delay in increases to the minimum wage.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One, Deputy Conway-Walsh said that the move would "increase workers’ poverty".
"We have to remember that the living wage is a recommendation of the Low Pay Commission, and that was designed to protect workers from poverty, and that is what the Government had committed to do before the election," she said.
"We need investment in training; we have €1.5 billion surplus in the National Training Fund to upskill workers and to help to maintain and increase productivity there."
"That should be done, as well as the investment in water, in renewable energy, in transport, to enable businesses to grow and diverse."
She said that businesses "don’t want talk, they want action".
"We cannot have a situation where we're in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, where workers have never worked so hard, yet they're struggling so much."
Deputy Conway-Walsh added that while she recognises that Ireland needs to increase and maintain its competitiveness, "this is the total wrong way to do it".
