The collective agreement for the civil service is to be signed today, the government has officially announced.
The agreement was meant to have been signed last week, but was delayed because of some points raised notably by the FORUM group of trade unions and the GWU.
The Times revealed at the end of last month that civil servants will be given a raise of 2.5 per cent annually for the next five years. The new agreement will raise the government wage bill by some €12 million a year.
Most of the extra pay will be passed on to the government’s nearly 30,000-strong workforce while former public servants will also see their pensions increase.
The last public service collective agreement expired in 2010.
The new agreement will cover the years between 2012 and 2016, with government employees receiving arrears for this year.
The new collective agreement will also include a number of family-friendly measures including the introduction of flexitime for personal reasons and the facility to take part of the available vacation leave on an hourly basis.