Benchmarking II bonanza doubtful - Sunday Business Post(How Pay Advances Work)
While it was set up primarily as a mathematical comparison between rates of pay in the public and private sector, Benchmarking I effectively operated as a system of top-up pay increases for public servants who felt that they were missing out on the benefits of the economic boom then pulsing through the private sector. The unions representing a completely unionised public sector (only a minority of private sector workers are represented by unions) were threatening the entire partnership process, which is so central to the model of government developed and practised by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Following an abortive strike early last summer - the nurses had waged a campaign for 10 per cent pay increases and shorter working hours in the run-up to the general election - nursing unions agreed to refer their claims to the benchmarking body. Sources on both government and union sides point to several independent studies comparing public sector and private sector pay in the years since Benchmarking I. Without exception, these studies show a big gap between comparable public and private sector pay, with the public sector advantage increasing. Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) - amore independent arbiter - suggested that the gap was 48 per cent, excluding the value of public sector pensions. Learn more
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