Now thousands of those workers could benefit from tax-efficient bonuses under landmark new guidelines for so-called "gain-sharing" to be unveiled by taoiseach Bertie Ahern this week, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

The social partners, including unions and the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation, have finally agreed a framework for companies to offer bonuses linked to improved productivity. Tax elements of the deal, delivered after five years of tortuous negotiations, require approval by the Revenue Commissioners.

It is the first commitment to be delivered under the government's 10-year social partnership national agreement, Towards 2016, announced last June.

A spokesman for the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP), which developed the framework, said that agreement marked a major step forward in enabling gainsharing to be introduced in Ireland.

NCPP head of communications Conor Leeson stressed that, while the document to be released contained guidance rather than regulations, the body and social partners hope the proposition will be looked on "favourably" by the Revenue Commissioners. He added that gain-sharing is a popular form of employee financial involvement in the United States, for instance, and that "progress is now possible in Ireland".

He described the guidelines as "12 easy steps to introducing gain-sharing" and added that while only one in seven companies in Ireland has an employee financial involvement scheme, ESRI research has shown that companies that are making "substantial profits" are four times more likely to have such a scheme in place than those that are not.

Stumbling blocks that held up agreement over the past five years included how to value shares fairly in a private company.

Gain-sharing is one of five methods of employee financial participation, including save as you earn schemes, approved profit-sharing schemes and employee share option schemes, but it is the only one without the necessary approval of the Revenue Commissioners for tax breaks.

The new guidelines could convince Revenue to change their position, potentially putting tens of thousands of workers on an equal footing with their counterparts in large, publicly-quoted firms, particularly multinational companies operating in Ireland, who commonly avail of share schemes with attractive tax breaks.

Even if gain-sharing schemes receive Revenue approval, however, some employers may still be reluctant to introduce them. Closely-held family-owned firms, for example, may be unwilling to dilute ownership by issuing shares to employees. Other difficulties may arise as to how employees could sell their shares.