Postal strike averted as state’s dispute agencies put to the test

A disruptive pre-Christmas postal dispute over pay and change has been averted, thereby avoiding a political headache for the Government.

The state-owned postal company, An Post, has accepted the findings of a Labour Court recommendation on pay and change, while the Communications Workers Union (CWU) has agreed to end all threats of industrial action in advance of a formal ballot of its members.

The Labour Court recently found that 5,000 members of the CWU in the company’s collection and delivery operation should receive pay rises due under the Sustaining Progress (SP) national wage agreement.

The increases had been withheld by the company on the ground that it was unable to meet the cost of the rises, unless the union agreed to a raft of detailed changes, whose implementation would mean productivity improvements.

In what was its second recommendation on the dispute, the Court recommended that the changes, some of which should be amended, should also be implemented. But the Court did not directly link payment of the wage rises to implementation of the change programme. The rise should be paid 'now' it stated, and the amended changes should be 'accepted'.

The Court’s second recommendation came at the end of a lengthy process, and after a half-day dispute on November 7, 2005 that limited the company’s operations and threatened postal deliveries in the run up to the Christmas period.

The dispute was also examined by the informal but powerful social partners’ group, the National Implementation Body (NIB). Before that, both management and union had held six months of fruitless talks at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), who appointed two experienced pay assessors under the terms of SP to examine the 'ability to pay' issue.

The two LRC appointed assessors found that the company could not afford to pay the rises unless the union members agreed to implement change. The change programme was subsequently drawn up by a special three-person technical group with experience of the company. Their report was endorsed by the Labour Court, but the union wanted the issue of change 'decoupled' from the withheld wage rises.

In the final Labour Court recommendation, the CWU succeeded in securing the SP wage rises in return for agreement on the principles of a change programme that has yet to be implemented. Implementation, which is to be monitored by the technical group (to be called the monitoring group), will not be easily achieved given the historical problems associated with the management and delivery of change in the Irish postal service.

Ultimately, all of the state dispute resolution agencies and the social partners, operating under the rules of SP, were able to devise a carefully managed end to a very difficult dispute, with all of its attendant poor industrial and personal relationships between management and the union.

The role played by the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and former CWU general secretary, David Begg, was central. Mr Begg, with his acknowledged insight into the company, was also in a pivotal position as leader of ICTU - and a member of the social partner’s body, the NIB - to influence events.

ICTU would have been uncomfortable entering talks on a new national agreement if postal workers had been on strike, although the talks are stalled anyway due to the Irish Ferries dispute over job displacement.

The Government, in the run up to Christmas is expected to announce a Budget in December with the next general election in mind. This meant that it too wanted to avoid postal disruption at such an emotional time.

However, the NIB and the Labour Court had to attempt to uphold the integrity of both the SP agreement and the authority of the dispute resolution agencies, specifically the Labour Court itself and the LRC. The Court tried to do so by recommending payment of the frozen wage rises and by also recommending acceptance of the change programme (as amended).

However, the workers concerned are set to receive the increases even if the change programme runs into difficulty. The industrial relations weekly, IRN Report commented: 'The CWU has always been able to apply industrial pressure, either at important holiday times or prior to elections.'

The advice from the Labour Court, however, is for both sides to embrace a partnership-based initiative so that they can establish better relations to meet the inevitable difficulties posed by further EU-led deregulation.

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