In a radical suggestion, by civil service standards, to the benchmarking body last week, employers urged that public servants should not be awarded any pay increase under next year's benchmarking pay report "if the body concludes that no increase is warranted".

There was a widespread belief that under the last benchmarking pay report in 2002 some public servants were awarded increases when the undisclosed evidence suggested they were paid as much if not more than comparable private sector workers.

The benchmarking body compares the rates of pay of public servants with selected private-sector workers and then increases the public servants' pay accordingly. The last benchmarking report in 2002 recommended an average increase of 9% for all 330,000 public servants, which cost the exchequer 1.2bn. A new report will be issued next year.

Much of the criticism heaped on the last benchmarking pay report was because the then minister for finance, Charlie McCreevy, refused to reveal how the benchmarking body arrived at the various increases it awarded public servants.

In a plea for greater transparency this time, the employers warn that benchmarking "must have credibility. . . with the general public".