Pay Talks Update: Deal or no deal?
The pay talks at the Workplace Relations Commission ended late last night (Tuesday, 6th June) in order to provide an opportunity for management to get crunching on their numbers.
Leaving the talks, SIPTU representatives expressed their disappointment about what they described as an extremely negative engagement with the management side. Several felt it was extremely difficult to see any way to resolve the remaining outstanding sectoral issues.
We are now in the final hours of this talks process and the gap between the two sides remains significant, with no guarantee that a new agreement can be reached.
The only crunching left to do is about pay and pensions. As of yet, despite over two weeks of talks, unions have not formally been given a piece of paper with the amount of money available to fund what is expected to be a three-year proposal.
SIPTU representatives reconvene for the next talks session at 2.30 p.m. this afternoon (Wednesday, 7th June).
Within a couple of hours, we’ll have a better handle on whether or not the attempt to find an acceptable balance at these pay talks will succeed in seeing a set of proposals hammered out that members could be asked to accept or reject in a ballot.
If they do, we will then move to clear up the non-pay agenda and focus on putting a final package together.