The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness "has delivered the goods", the president of the 8,000-strong Public Service Executive Union (PSEU), Mr John Rossiter, told its annual conference in Waterford.
In a reference to the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland, he also warned that "no group of public servants" could be dealt with as a special group outside the benchmarking process without follow-on claims from other unions.
Supporting the executive position to enter talks on a successor to the PPF, Mr Rossiter said living standards had increased by almost 20 per cent under the current agreement, and there had been 700 promotions for executive officers in 2000 alone.
"While various far-fetched notions have been floated about other courses of action, we all know that the alternative to a programme approach is one where the union, or the civil service unions, or the public service unions, will seek to secure increases in pay from our employers. Those of you who are around long enough to remember will know that this can be a tortuous process.
"At the end of the day, the most that can be achieved is simply a pay increase. Such negotiations cannot encompass the other issues which affect members' living standards and which have been central to the programme process.
"We have seen in the past, before the national programmes, that we could secure very large nominal pay increases which were quickly eroded by price increases and increases in taxation."