Employers set out blueprint for social partnership

In September 2002, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation published its 'blueprint' for talks on a new national programme to replace Ireland's current three-year agreement, the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.

The Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) says that it wants 'deliverable mechanisms' included in any new national agreement to replace the current Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (IE0003149F) at the end of 2002. The employers' organisation believes that such mechanisms are needed to enforce low single-figure pay increases in order to achieve improved workplace flexibility. IBEC also wants to ensure that companies that plead 'inability to pay' will be catered for. The demands are included in a new IBEC document entitled Vision for social partnership beyond 2002, which was published on 17 September 2002.

The document acknowledged the role played by the trade unions in the development of the Irish economy since 1987. However, while IBEC would prefer to continue with the consensus-based approach to pay bargaining, the document states that 'if this cannot be achieved, then clearly we will have no option but to return to bargaining at enterprise level.' IBEC’s director of industrial relations, Brendan McGinty, said that pay increases must not be ahead of those of Ireland’s main trading partners.

The IBEC document makes it clear that on this occasion employers will be looking for some form of binding arbitration to ensure compliance with the pay terms of an agreement. It says that commitments must be 'underpinned by real and deliverable mechanisms so that there will not be a repeat of what took place during PPF'.

Employers may also look for a 'pay pause' on this occasion and place a renewed emphasis on commitments to change and flexibility. 'Employers must be satisfied that any commitment by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) to delivery of understandings on change and flexibility at enterprise level is real and can be relied upon,' the document states.

IBEC is under strong pressure from member companies to take a hard-line stance on pay in talks over a new agreement. Observers believe that securing a private sector pay agreement is likely to prove very difficult. Both employer and trade union sides recognise that the government can no longer offer tax reductions in order to 'sweeten' the modest pay rises that are seen as being needed to help reduce inflationary pressures in the Irish economy.

IBEC and ICTU are expected to enter talks with the government on the prospective new national agreement sometime in late October 2002. Before they commence talks, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) is to issue a report on social and economic strategy covering the period of any new agreement. NESC’s three-year strategy documents usually provide the backdrop to national talks (IE9906281N).