Stormont ministers have agreed to release £688 million to make outstanding pay awards for public sector workers in Northern Ireland.
Individual departments have each been given an allocation and will now negotiate with relevant trade unions on the pay rises that will be introduced.
Departments were allocated more than £1 billion in total on Thursday, with £380 million of non-pay related resource to be spent addressing immediate pressures and overspends. Ministers also agreed to distribute £83.5 million for capital spending.
Northern Ireland has witnessed major strike action in recent times as multiple unions have taken to the picket lines to protest over the failure to make pay awards during Stormont’s powersharing impasse.
The restoration of the Executive earlier this month opened the way for a resolution to the disputes and many unions have suspended plans for further industrial action pending the outcome of pay talks with Stormont departments.
The money was included in the UK Government’s £3.3 million package to support the restoration of powersharing at Stormont.
However, the funds allocated for addressing the delayed pay awards for public sector workers only covers the current financial year and it will be up to Executive ministers to budget for sustaining pay levels going forward.
The allocation of the money to departments was agreed by ministers at a meeting of the Executive in Belfast on Thursday following a proposal by Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly accompanied Ms Archibald as they announced the move to reporters inside Stormont Castle following the meeting.
“We were determined to make some early decision and I’m glad that we’ve been able to do that,” Ms O’Neill said.
“We had said that whenever we returned as an Executive that we would work towards making sure that workers had fair pay.
“So, I’m delighted to say that today the Executive, on the recommendation of the Finance Minister, has decided to allocate over £685 million which will allow conversations now to commence between employers and trade unions in relation to public sector pay.”
Ms O’Neill said ministers were at one in continuing to fight for more money from the Treasury.
“I know we are united as an Executive in terms of the challenges that we have ahead of us but also the need to ensure that we have a properly funded public service model,” she said.
Ms Little-Pengelly added: “The people of Northern Ireland deserve public services that work for them.
“We know that there’s big challenges within our public services but, of course, we must recognise that the people who deliver those public services, our public servants, deserve fair pay.
“And that’s why this step today of the allocation of £685 million for the purposes of negotiation, and hopefully quick settlement, is a really welcome one.
“We do want to get these issues resolved because our public sector workers have deserved that fair pay, but they have deserved that before this point.
“So we do hope that we’re able to resolve that and I welcome the fact that the £3.3 billion package secured with the UK Government has been able to enable this announcement today in terms of the settlement for this year.”
Ms Archibald said she was “delighted” to secure Executive approval for the allocation.
“This is a really good day for our public sector workers who’ve had to wait too long for their pay award, for our health care workers, our teachers, our police, our civil servants, and it will enable negotiations to begin immediately with trade unions,” she said.
“And I want to see those conclude as quickly as possible to ensure that workers are getting a fair pay award and that they’re actually seeing that money in their pay packets as quickly as possible.
“I think it’s also a good signal coming from this Executive that we are working together to deliver for people in the most challenging of circumstances.”