The country's second-largest trade union has said that five conditions, including a new method for determining pay increases, legal right to union representation and mandatory pensions would have to be met if it was to support a new national agreement.
The new union Unite, which was created by the merger of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU) and Amicus, said deal-breaking demands in five areas formed part of an agreed position it had reached in relation to a future national agreement.
The ATGWU had previously opposed the current national agreement, Towards 2016, while Amicus supported the deal.
Unite said that in future wage increases must be linked to a new formula which would take account of economic growth, profit levels and inflation.
It also said that in future workers had to be granted a legal right to union representation if a majority of staff were in a union or voted to join a union.
Unite also said that the Government and employers must undertake to introduce mandatory pensions "to protect the 50 per cent of the working population for whom the current pension provision is unsatisfactory".
The union also said that legislation had to be introduced to regulate and protect the position of agency workers.
Unite regional secretary Jimmy Kelly said that the new combined membership represented "a new power base to bring to the social partnership table"
"We will stand firm on behalf of our members, and if that makes the social partnership meetings less comfortable than in previous years, then so be it," he said.
Talks on a new national agreement are expected to get under way after Christmas. A plenary meeting of the social partners will take place tomorrow at Farmleigh in Dublin.
