Formal talks aimed at agreeing a new public sector pay deal will begin at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Monday.
It follows meetings throughout the day aimed at exploring whether the formal process could begin after a second 24-hour strike by public sector workers for next Wednesday was suspended yesterday.
Independent Chair Kevin Foley today met a trade union representative, ICTU General Secretary Owen Reidy, and a Government representative, Oonagh Buckley, who is Secretary General of the Department of the Environment.
Other stakeholders were briefed on the phone.
Shortly before 9pm, they confirmed agreement had been reached for formal pay talks to start on Monday.
In a statement, they said: “Following engagement with the parties, we believe that discussions at the WRC should get under way on Monday 19 October. The discussions should commence with pay related matters, including the trade unions’ claims on cost-of-living effects between 2021–2025, this year, and for the duration of any agreement”.
“There is a need to rebuild trust and confidence in industrial relations in the public sector by addressing commitments made in the context of the previous agreement,” they added.
Our Political Correspondent Barry Lenihan has the latest update from talks
Mr Foley, Mr Reidy and Ms Buckley said they will remain available should there be any impasse on any particular matter during the negotiations at the WRC and they would “put forward a means of resolution which should be accepted by the parties”.
“We wish to make it clear that this special arrangement should be understood as an exceptional measure reflective of the scale of this dispute and its impact on the economy and the people who rely on public services.
“This measure is specific to this dispute and its unique nature and is not in any sense a template or precedent for any other dispute between these or any other parties”, they added.
Sources on both sides have welcomed this evening’s development, while expressing positive surprise that this part of the process has concluded perhaps quicker than expected.
The Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers welcomed tonight’s developments.
“I would like to thank Mr Foley, Mr Reidy and Ms Buckley for their intensive work today. Their statement provides the basis for a move into constructive dialogue at the Workplace Relations Commission to start on Monday,” he said.
“This is a positive move forward and demonstrates the genuine commitment to dialogue on all sides to ensure an outcome that delivers for our people and our country. I look forward to the formal talks commencing on Monday.” added the Fianna Fáil Dublin West TD.
Officers of the of the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions will attend talks at the WRC on Monday at a time to be specified.
Tonight’s agreement comes after a day of talks at Forsa’s office in Dublin.
It comes after more than 300,00 public sector workers, including nurses, doctors, teachers and civil servants, took part in a national strike on Wednesday.
Yesterday trade unions agreed to suspend plans for a second 24-hour strike next Wednesday after it was announced that an independent third party, Kevin Foley, is to conduct an exercise aimed at constructing a basis for formal negotiations at the WRC.
Last week’s public sector strike could have been avoided if the Government had been “doing its job” and engaging with unions, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said.
Speaking this morning, Ms McDonald said she hoped public sector pay talks this weekend would he handled constructively as she accused the Government of “playing a game of chicken” with workers.
Ms McDonald said the situation had been “very, very badly handled” by the Government.
She said: “We shouldn’t have had industrial action on Wednesday, if the Government were doing its job and working constructively.
“The engagement with the workers and with their unions should have been ongoing from June onwards.
“So, the negotiations will decide in the end what the what the number is.”
She added: “I’m very, very aware that public sector workers, like everybody else, are really struggling to make ends meet.
“They have told us that and we were out on the picket lines ourselves, and all of the talk was about the cost of home heating oil and diesel and petrol and groceries and childcare, and all of those things are affecting every single working person and every working family.
“So, Government has to come at this constructively.
“I really want to see them being constructive because it seems to me that they have been thus far playing a game of chicken with public sector workers.”
Read more: Phone calls that helped get next Wednesday’s strike suspended
Fórsa General Secretary Kevin Callinan said he had a phone conversation with the Taoiseach Micheál Martin yesterday in which he impressed upon him the way in which cost-of-living pressures were affecting his members.
“And I believe now that the Government has been listening,” Mr Callinan said. “Obviously, we need to test that in practice in a talks process,” he added.
