Unions to formally ratify public sector pay deal

Union leaders will meet today to formally ratify the latest public sector pay deal.

Agreement was reached with the Government at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in January on a deal that will provide for pay increases of 10.25% over a two-and-a-half year period.

Since the negotiations concluded, individual unions and staff associations have been balloting their members on the proposals.

The biggest public sector unions including Fórsa, SIPTU, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) and the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) all saw their members vote in favour of the deal by large majorities.

The leaders of the 19 unions affiliated to the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) will meet to aggregate the ballots and formally accept the pay deal.

Once the agreement is ratified, the first of a series of pay increases will come in the form of a 2.25% increase backdated to 1 January.

It will benefit around 385,000 public servants including nurses, doctors, gardaí and teachers.

The agreement is worth up to 17.3% for lower paid workers.

The pay deal will cost around €3.6 billion and includes a local bargaining mechanism to allow individual grades, groups and categories of public servants to raise specific issues.

The previous public service pay agreement, Building Momentum, expired on 31 December 2023 and the new deal will run from January 2024 to June 2026.