The Government has warned nurses, gardai and CIE workers it will not concede "unsustainable" pay rises that put at risk progress made over the past decade through social partnership.
While the Government stand was warmly welcomed last night by the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation, the chairman of the Irish Nurses' Organisation, Mr Liam Doran, said it would not deflect his members from their objective of "parity of esteem with other health service professionals".
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr Peter Cassells, said: The Government must accept its share of the blame for the current situation. Instead of lecturing everybody else it should work for solutions with Congress and the other social partners."
The SIPTU vice-president, Mr Des Geraghty, said that rather than issuing statements the Government should be involving itself in resolving these problems.
The Government statement was issued after yesterday's Cabinet meeting. It pointed out that £135 million had been awarded to the nurses in ongoing pay increases. These represented "a positive and realistic improvement in the pay and conditions of nurses".
The latest Labour Court recommendation was "the culmination of many years of discussions on nurses' pay and conditions. There is no scope for improving upon its terms.
"The Government urges all nurses to give careful consideration to the Labour Court recommendation in the light of the increases already agreed and the implications of seeking to resolve differences through conflict, rather than agreed procedures."
On the issue of Garda pay, the statement said "while there can be discussions with the GRA [Garda Representative Association] on the practical problems involved in implementing new rosters, the overall package recommended by the PCW adjudication board represents the final offer to the gardai".
The statement described the approach to public sector pay of "various groups", such as workers in Iarnrod Eireann and Dublin Bus, as an attempt "to pursue their own individual agendas, regardless of the impact which this would have on the prospects of negotiating a possible successor to Partnership 2000 and maintaining social partnership.
"The Government believe that we as a society are at risk of throwing away, through unsustainable pay increases and the substitution of strikes for consensus, the many dramatic improvements in the economy and in living standards which have emerged in recent years."
Citing the fall in employment and real incomes in the 1980s, the statement said: "Surely we do not wish to return to the habits of over a decade ago, when this economy plunged into a downward spiral. The Government cannot and will not acquiesce in such a situation."
The director-general of IBEC, Mr John Dunne, described the statement as "plain common sense. If the Government was to concede current pay demands in the public sector the economy will be undermined, as will our capacity to pay for and develop social services".
However, Mr Doran, whose union is currently holding mass meetings of nurses around the State on the Labour Court award, said that unfortunately the award "does not have the potential to give nurses parity of esteem with other health professionals. Staff nurses at the top of the scale earn £2 an hour less on average than other professional grades.
"It is a source of bewilderment to most nurses to hear other public service unions talking of `catchup' claims when other workers have a shorter working week, more pay and longer holidays."