SIPTU members at Bausch & Lomb reject partnership forum

In September 2004, members of the SIPTU trade union at Bausch & Lomb, a leading multinational operating in Ireland, voted to pull out of a joint union-management partnership forum. There are concerns that the decision may undermine efforts to build enterprise partnerships at local level in Ireland.

Members of the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Trade Union (SIPTU) at the Waterford-based Irish subsidiary of the US-owned contact lens manufacturer, Bausch & Lomb, voted in September 2004 to pull out of a joint trade union-management partnership forum. The move places the future of the forum, which was established in 1998 (IE9802242N), in some doubt.

SIPTU represents 1,450 workers out of Bausch & Lomb's total Irish workforce of 1,700. The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), which represents 60-70 craft workers, has not pulled out of the forum on this occasion, although it has done so in the past.

According to the independent weekly, Industrial Relations News (IRN), a company spokesperson said that management has an explicit in-house confidentiality agreement with SIPTU, under which it is prohibited from commenting on such developments.

IRN reported that SIPTU members perceived that there was insufficient consultation by management over various issues, that industrial relations/workplace issues of concern to workers were not being adequately addressed, and that the company was just using the partnership process to 'float issues' on its own agenda. Mike Jennings, the SIPTU regional secretary for the Midlands and South East, said that 'where workers industrial relations concerns are not given due weight, disenchantment begins to creep in. It does illustrate that real partnership has to be a partnership of equals.' The SIPTU official did add, however, that Bausch & Lomb is generally seen as a good employer.

The Bausch & Lomb partnership forum has been regarded as one of the 'flagship models' of workplace 'partnership' in Ireland (IE9811264N). In view of this, the predicament facing the forum constitutes a blow to advocates of enterprise partnership.

A Bausch & Lomb partnership steering group started work in 1996, with the forum subsequently being formed in 1998. It is made up of representatives of management, employees and trade unions. The forum’s constitution sets out its general purpose, its function and scope and the areas in which it will facilitate information-sharing and consultation. These areas include competition, capital spending, equal opportunities, future plans, health and safety, job security, new technology, reward systems and employee development.

The forum is composed; of three management nominees; two representatives of SIPTU; one representative of TEEU; and 11 employees from different sections within the plant, made up of seven SIPTU members and four craft workers. The total membership is 18, including the chair. The forum does not engage in collective bargaining, with traditional 'hard' industrial relations issues, such as pay and conditions, being dealt with separately. All decisions are supposed to be made on a consensus basis, and confidentiality on certain sensitive business matters must be observed.