NO AGREEMENT has been reached on the critical issue of collective bargaining as social partnership talks enter their scheduled final week.
The unions are holding out for an agreement on collective bargaining which would allow recognition of unions in workplaces for employees that want it, although recent court cases have established that there is no statutory right to collective bargaining.
The Government and employers are reluctant to go down the road of automatic union recognition as many multi-nationals, in particular, are not in favour of them. Sources close to the talks say the outstanding issue of pay will be the last thing to be resolved and the talks may not even get that far if no agreement is reached on collective bargaining.
“If the unions are to accept moderation in pay increases, they need something to sell to their members. If no agreement is reached on collective bargaining, it will be very difficult to get pay moderation accepted by workers,” said one union official.
Negotiations on a national pay deal, to succeed the first phase of the 10-year Towards 2016 partnership agreement, have been going on since April and are proving to be the most difficult in over a decade given the deteriorating state of the economy.
Employers have pleaded inability to pay above-inflation wage increases and some are indicating the need for a wage freeze.
It is likely that, if there is a deal on pay, it will be “frontloaded” to get workers out of their present difficulties in the hope that economic conditions will improve, while pressure is being brought to bear to secure a better deal for lower-paid workers who are being most affected by inflation.
Agreement on pay rates in some areas of the private sector is already overdue, but wage agreements with public service workers have up to six months to run.
Although the talks are scheduled to conclude by the end of this week, there is a strong possibility there will be no agreement. They would then probably resume at the end of August or early September.
