Benchmarking report more favourable to bosses
The long-awaited benchmarking report on pay in the public sector has recommended significantly higher wage increases for those in management positions than for lower-grade workers.
The recommended increases for higher grades in sectors like the Gardai, the prison service and the Defence Forces are up to three times as high as the increases proposed for rank and file workers.
The report recommends an average 8.9% increase for all 230,000 public servants, ranging from 3% for university lecturers to 25% for ambulance drivers.
Large increases were also recommended for social workers and dentists, while prison officers, soldiers and lab technicians were at the lower end of the scale.
Twenty-five per cent of the pay increases are due to be paid immediately and back-dated to December, but the report recommends that the remaining 75% should be conditional on increased productivity.
