Staff in the Northern Ireland Civil Service are to get a retrospective two per cent pay rise after the Department of Finance approved the increase.
The backdated rise is effective from August 1 last year.
The department said a formal offer had been put to trade unions on March 18 but some unions have experienced difficulties in balloting their members due to the coronavirus crisis.
A spokesman for the department said "given the exceptional circumstances", finance minister Conor Murphy has decided to go ahead with the pay offer.
"In parallel there is a need to progress public sector reform," he said.
"This will include more agile working practices, new approaches to recruitment and selection for jobs in the civil service, improvement to management of sickness absence in the NICS, with a particular focus on mental health, expansion of the NICS diversity and inclusion programme, and completion of the harmonisation of terms and conditions between industrial and non-industrial staff."
The 2019 pay award will cost £23.5 million and will be funded from within departmental budgets.
