The Government is to launch a fresh effort to get stalled negotiations on a new national partnership agreement back on the rails, despite a display of pessimism about the prospects yesterday by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Officials from the Department of the Taoiseach, led by the secretary-general, Mr Dermot McCarthy, are expected to be in contact this week with the Irish Congress of Trades Unions and the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation, along with the other social partners.
In a new year RTÉ interview, Mr Ahern said: "I am a bit pessimistic about them, I am worried about them. I think the last thing that we need to do in a period where the economy is struggling a bit because of the international situation - not because of our own domestic situation - is to get into a period of strife and get into a situation where the harmony and confidence that we have generated at home and particularly internationally abroad, breaks down."
In a plea to employers and unions, the Taoiseach said it was in the interests of neither side to enter "a free-for-all situation" which could threaten Ireland's competitiveness and lose foreign sales. "We should not walk away from social partnership and I will certainly do all that I can to avoid that happening in the weeks ahead."
Relations between employers and unions could become more strained in coming days as pay demands are lodged from up to 55,000 SIPTU workers, along with 35,000 more from the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union. The Programme for Partnership and Fairness ran out for most private-sector workers on December 31st.
Last night the president of the Congress of Trades Unions, Sen Joe O'Toole, rejected a statement from the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, praising workers who had taken pay cuts in response to the worsening international climate. "I've loads of examples from around the country where workers in recent times have taken a cut in salary in order to protect their jobs and protect the company," Ms Harney told the Sunday Business Post.
Sen O'Toole was openly dismissive of her statement, saying that most business leaders acknowledged they would have to pay 5 per cent more to staff this year. "I believe that the country will be the loser, the economy will be the loser and those who are poorest off will be the loser if there is not a new national pay agreement," he said.
However, one leading trades unionist privately told The Irish Times that pay demands from some unions - notably those representing bank officials and others in the financial services industry - could be even higher. "Some of those companies have been coining it. There is no way that workers are going to accept low increases.
"I don't want to see a return to individual pay bargaining. I remember how painful it was. But maybe some people will have to relearn the pain that was involved in it ," he said.
