A TEAM of employers' representatives met officials of the Taoiseach's Department yesterday to discuss the prospects for a resumption of formal talks between the social partners on a new national pay agreement in the coming weeks.
Trade union leaders met Government officials earlier in the week to outline their position about the resumption of the talks which broke up without agreement at the beginning of the month.
Brian Cowen has made it clear that he will be available to meet the parties involved in the talks if they believe that such intervention will be helpful.
When the long-running talks adjourned during the August bank holiday weekend, there was a degree of confidence on all sides that a deal could still be salvaged and that the 21-year-old process could be continued for a further term. However, the impact of the economic downturn has worsened significantly over the past month, according to some employers, and there is no guarantee that they will be prepared to stand over the final offer they made a month ago.
At that stage, the employers had offered a 21-month deal involving a six-month pay pause, followed by a 2.5 per cent pay rise for six months and a further 2.5 per cent increase for nine months.
The unions argued against any pay pause and were seeking a pay deal of about 5 per cent a year to match inflation and were also pressing for flat-rate increases to protect lower-paid workers.
The director general of Ibec, Turlough O'Sullivan, said earlier this week that the economic situation had worsened significantly in the past month and that the Government needed to do more to curb public spending.
"The mood is very negative and very depressed, with employers very worried about the outlook, about our loss of competitiveness and our ability to compete in export markets," said Mr O'Sullivan, who added that a number of previously insulated sectors were now facing significant pressure.