Intensive efforts to break the deadlock in the national pay talks are to resume today after the parties failed again last night to make significant progress, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent
There remains a wide gap between unions and employers over key issues such as basic pay increases and the duration of any new deal.
Tonight will provide the last opportunity for the sides to agree a deal before Taoiseach Bertie Ahern departs for New York for a speaking engagement at the United Nations.
Mr Ahern is due to address a UN conference on aid and leaves Dublin tomorrow morning. He has also said there will be no talks over the June bank holiday weekend.
He warned yesterday that time to secure an agreement was running out. "There comes a time, and I think we're very close to it, when people have to decide whether they want to do a deal or not," he said.
The parties have been trying to agree a pay deal of between two and three years' duration, which would form part of an overall 10-year social partnership programme.
Unions favour a shorter deal and want pay increases of at least 5 per cent per annum, whereas employers would prefer a three-year agreement involving increases in "low single figures".
While the employers' body, Ibec, has indicated a willingness to slightly modify its demand for a three-year deal, there remains a big gap between the sides on this matter alone.
Department of the Taoiseach secretary general Dermot McCarthy was in contact with both Ibec and Ictu leaders yesterday in an attempt to find some common ground.
The two sides later called to Government Buildings for separate discussions with Mr McCarthy, but there were no direct negotiations.
Arriving for a meeting with Mr McCarthy, Ictu president Peter McLoone echoed Mr Ahern's concern that time was running out in the talks.
If the parties failed to achieve a deal last night, he said, hopes for an agreement would rapidly begin to disappear.
Ibec director general Turlough O'Sullivan, speaking as he left Government Buildings at about 7.30pm, said the duration of any deal had to be "significant" from the point of view of stability.
Talks between Mr McCarthy and Ictu representatives were subsequently adjourned at around 9pm.
Despite the failure to agree a deal after almost four months of talks on pay and other partnership issues, both sides remain determined to conclude an agreement if possible.
A comprehensive package of measures designed to underpin employment standards has already been largely agreed.
It is unlikely to be finalised and implemented, however, unless the parties can agree a deal on pay, which has been a critical element of all social partnership programmes.
There was some expectation yesterday that the Government would move to address union concerns about outstanding elements of the employment standards package.
Areas such as regulation of employment agencies and measures to ensure that all companies engaged in public contracts are in full compliance with labour law are among those yet to be concluded.
The hope was that if these could be addressed to Ictu's satisfaction, unions would find it difficult to walk away from an overall deal, even if the pay element did not quite meet their expectations.
Some movement was still required, however, from both sides on issues such as pay increases, the phasing of payments and the duration of a deal.
Failure to complete a deal on pay would result in an end to 19 years of unbroken social partnership.