Members of the State's second-largest trade union have voted to accept proposed new national agreement, Sustaining Progress.
IMPACT backed the deal by 89 per cent to 11 per cent. A breakdown of the vote shows that IMPACT members in private and commercial semi-state companies - who do not benefit from benchmarking - generally backed the deal by similar margins.
IMPACT's 32 delegates to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions' special conference will now vote for the deal Wednesday, March 26th.
IMPACT General Secretary Mr Peter McLoone said the vote dispelled claims of a public-private split among workers.
"IMPACT members in all sectors have backed Sustaining Progress because we have achieved cost-of-living increases that protect living standards for all workers, including the public servants and private sector workers who don't benefit from benchmarking. On top of that we have delivered the full implementation of benchmarking," he said.
Only five of IMPACT's 109 branches voted against the deal, and none of them represented workers in the private or commercial semi-state sector.
IMPACT has 49,000 members, mostly in the civil and public service, and has members in private sector and commercial semi-state companies including Eircom, Coillte, and Aer Lingus.