Siptu is expected to confirm today that it will postpone until the 11th hour a decision on whether to enter talks on a new partnership agreement.
A decision was to have been taken at the union's biennial conference in Cork today, but will now be delayed because of the Irish Ferries controversy. An emergency motion was circulated to delegates yesterday.
If the motion is passed today, as is expected, Siptu will hold a special delegate conference on October 24th to decide whether it wants to remain in social partnership. In the meantime, the union plans to engage with both the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) and the Government to ascertain if there is potential in the partnership talks for "real progress" on measures to maintain employment standards.
Ictu had already scheduled a special delegate conference for October 25th at which unions will jointly decide whether to enter talks on a successor deal to Sustaining Progress. Without Siptu's support, a proposal that unions take part in the talks would most likely fail. The mood of delegates will become clearer today when motions on the union's pay strategy, in the event of partnership talks going ahead, are debated. Delegates agreed yesterday to allow the emergency motion tabled by the national executive council to be tabled.
It reads: "Noting the recent developments in Irish Ferries, conference directs the national officers to engage with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the appropriate authorities to seek to ascertain if there is potential for real progress on measures to effectively address the issue of job displacement, exploitation and the accelerating race to the bottom on employment standards, through proper regulation, compliance and enforcement, in talks on a successor to the Sustaining Progress agreement, and to report back to a special delegate conference on October 24th, 2005."
Irish Ferries has offered seafaring staff the option of voluntary redundancy or continued employment on reduced pay and inferior conditions. Those who leave would be replaced by cheaper labour from eastern Europe.
