Congress General Sectretary Patricia King has formally rejected claims from Danny McCoy - the head of business lobby group IBEC - on private sector pay claims for 2017 and his belief that people in Ireland enjoy 'spectacular living standards".
In a recent interview with the Irish Independent Mr McCoy chracterised private sector union pay claims of as "a try-on" claimed that living standards in Ireland were 'spectacular".
In a formal reponse to the Ibec chief, Patricia King 'completey rejected' his assertions on pay claims, piinting out that the 4% figure which Congress advised affiliates in the private sector to pursue for 2017 was based on offiocial growth figure and "Ireland's very low wage share as a percentage of national income."
The Congress figure is also supported by analysis of growth and productivity figures from the Nevin Economic Researcg Institute.
The General Secretary was also critical of Mr McCoy's "extraordinary hyperbole" on the issue of public service pay.
No response has yet been received from the Ibec head.